Topic: new marantz PMD 661

[aaronji]

If you have any specific questions about the PMD661 I can try and answer them. Like I said I am not in the position to make expert commentary of the recording quality.

Grant

Any word on the battery life, Grant?  In an earlier post in this thread, someone quoted a message from another board saying three hours.  Is that the sort of run-time you are getting also? 

ordered

Nice!  I am eagerly awaiting your impressions (and maybe some samples?)! 

I would love to get one, but Doug doesn't ship overseas, so I will have to make any order coincide with my next trip home, which will probably not be before the summer...

[JasonSobel]

here is some info that I got from Doug, regarding his PMD-661 concord mod.  I had asked him how it compares against the V3, and how the deck might perform when recording unamplified acoustic music.  I found this email to be helpful, and I thought others might as well.

The PMD 661 Concert MOD maxes out at about 53dB of gain and it will not be as quiet as the V3 at that gain level. No deck I know of will be ! On the other hand the PMD 661s A/D chip does not need as much level as the V3s A/D chip so you will not need to add as much gain with the 661. I find the PMD 661 needs about 40 dB of gain for most acoustic music, about 45dB for a solo vocalist. The sound will be close to that of the FR2LE HD MOD as they both use the same preamp chips. All the features remain intact with the PMD 661 upgrade.

I find Doug's opinion useful, though of course it doesn't replace hearing one in action.  but it's likely that I'll be buying one of these in a few weeks, after I sell some of my current gear.

[MattD]

Sobel, I'll race you!

[Goldy]

Me too, I have been semi-retired from taping a few years. My previous rig was Schoeps CMC6/MK4 > DMIC-20 > D8. I've have been waiting to move to an all-in-one and now I'm ready to pull the trigger.

[spcyrfc]

here is some info that I got from Doug, regarding his PMD-661 concord mod.  I had asked him how it compares against the V3, and how the deck might perform when recording unamplified acoustic music.  I found this email to be helpful, and I thought others might as well.

The PMD 661 Concert MOD maxes out at about 53dB of gain and it will not be as quiet as the V3 at that gain level. No deck I know of will be ! On the other hand the PMD 661s A/D chip does not need as much level as the V3s A/D chip so you will not need to add as much gain with the 661. I find the PMD 661 needs about 40 dB of gain for most acoustic music, about 45dB for a solo vocalist. The sound will be close to that of the FR2LE HD MOD as they both use the same preamp chips. All the features remain intact with the PMD 661 upgrade.

I find Doug's opinion useful, though of course it doesn't replace hearing one in action.  but it's likely that I'll be buying one of these in a few weeks, after I sell some of my current gear.

very close to a response i was looking for.
thanks for sharing.

[J.T.L]

...size comparison. Real world batt test tomorrow morning...

[thegreatgumbino]

Damn that's tiny.  Thanks for the pics.  +T

[hypnotoad]

Pretty cool.

Bring on the tests! 

[hippiemafia]

what's the voltage needed to run the deck? can you read it on the external
dc plug in? can u read it on the bottom by the battery door? surprised no one has asked this yet.

[flintstone]

You can find the information about the power supply in the 661 manual.
The AC power adapter is the DA620PMD.  It produces 5V DC, 1.5 A.

Flintstone

[J.T.L]

Using Duracell 2650mah rechargeables, 48Vph on, all meters and displays on, set at 24/44. I will report back with runtime...

[J.T.L]

...it ran out when I left to go pick up my Son from school. I have two wave files...

3,906,249 KB
263,740 KB

...someone wanna do the math to figure out the runtime? I am now taking the boy out for a bike ride in the park. Oh, it seems as if it closed out the last file with no problems and the transfer time on the files is 30 mins...I had to do it in windows as it hung up on my Mac. I'll check that out later...

[JasonSobel]

...it ran out when I left to go pick up my Son from school. I have two wave files...

3,906,249 KB
263,740 KB

...someone wanna do the math to figure out the runtime?

at 24/44.1, it's about 1 hour per gig.  you've got ~4GB of recorded files, so that's about 4 hours of run time.

[flintstone]

What mics did you use?  The Soundfield SPS200 in your signature is
a four channel surround sound mic, normally plugged into a computer.

Flintstone

[aaronji]

...or the Nevatons, which I seem to recall are pretty hungry?  Maybe better run-time with a lower draw mic?  In any event, four+ hours works for me.

How's it sound?