Topic: Tascam DR100 mkii, AT853, UA5, JB3, Zoom H2, some comparisons and conclusions

[Karl]

I bought myself some new equipment and have had some fun putting it through it's paces.

disclaimer: all of this is supposed to be fun and hopefully informational, if anybody wants to point out flaws in what I did, great, do some of your own testing and report back

In the past, I always used the Nomad Jukebox 3 (JB3), have used minidisc here and there, and started with good ol cassette tape back in the  90's. With the JB3, I have used a Digi-Mod Edirol UA-5 (digi mod by Oade) and the AT853 mics with pretty good success. I just got tired of the "old" equipment, the archaic transfers, the weight, the complication.

I tape a lot of things...anywere from classical, to live acoustic drums, sometimes stealth concert taping, pretty wide range of stuff.

Let me just start off by saying that the Tascam DR100 run on PHANTOM POWER AT853 mics (yes using phantom power adaptors) sounds amazing and is incredibly versatile. At least amazing for $300-ish mics. Very flexible combo. The only possible downside is battery life, I am not done putting this through battery life tests.

I did basically two initial tests with all of my gear. First was to see how "clean" of a recording I could get. You know, like having to record classical music, understanding that you may have to crank up the gains a lot, and likely do some gain in post processing, how clean of a signal are you going to record? To test this, I played some music in a room down the hall, pretty quiet, and compared afterward.

I had two pre-amp options, the UA5, and the DR100. The UA5 may have been a *hair* cleaner than the DR100, but honestly the difference was negligible. Let me also note, that I messed around with using the UA5 to pass a digital signal to the recorders, as well as an analog signal. On both the JB3 and DR100, there was no difference that I could discern. Sweet!

The other testing I did was to see how well this could all record obnoxiously loud stuff. I have my drums in my closet and recorded, setting gains appropriately. Again the AT853>DR100 (phantom power) held up great, no distortion.

As far as pre-amp coloration, I could not tell a difference between the UA5 and the DR100.

I can also use the AT853 with a 9v battery box. It sounded fairly clean on the quiet tests, but had a lot of distortion on the loud tests. And I also noticed, when recording things in the 'middle' range of loudness, this combo had less clear treble.

I have a Zoom H2 that someone is letting me borrow, and let me tell you, this thing failed every test I threw at it. It was considerably noiser on the quiet tests, and it couldn't even handle loud signals easy. The only possible plus to the Zoom might be battery life. But who cares when you can't pull a decent recording? I was possibly going to use this as a stealth unit, but it won't even do as that. I have an old small mic, PC-62 (this came with the Sony WMD3 cassette tape recorder, similar to the WMD6). This mic is very un-sensitive, which honestly is good to run with high SPL situations using plug-in-power. The Zoom distorted even when using that mic. Go figure.

Going from 16 bit (JB3) to 24 bit (DR100) I expected to see some sort of improvement in the quiet tests. I did not unfortunately gain any improvement that I could note. It still makes me feel better to record in 24 bit though Maybe in more real world recording I will notice a difference when having to add gain to quiet stuff.

So am I glad I spent $250 on the DR100? Absolutely! I can't find a single negative about this for my purposes (except maybe battery life, I will report on that when I am done). This unit is very flexible, simple and forgiving of mistakes.

So, for this budget range, very happy so far!

[acidjack]

Thank you for the writeup and for the informed opinions. We've all at least anecdotally confirmed the Zooms are bad, but it is nice to have someone challenge that assumption a bit more rigorously.

AT853s are an excellent mic; like many Audio Technica products, rather underrated.

[Karl]

Yes, the AT853's are nice. They, in my experience at least, seem to be very sensitive mics. Great for recording something like classical music, but if they aren't powered properly can and will distort in high SPL situations. But running them on phantom power I haven't been able to distort them yet.

My only other general observation of the AT853 is that to make them sound "perfect" I am consistently having to reduce bass and add about 3db of treble in post production.

I ran the Tascam DR100 mkii through battery run time tests. Here is what I got:

Unit running phantom power:
Internal Li-on battery, 3:30 (hours:minutes)
Duracell AA non rechargeable, 40 minutes
Powergenix AA Nickel Zinc rechargeables, 2:15

Unit recording a digital input:
Internal Li-on battery, 5:20
Duracell AA non rechargeable, 1:28
Powergenix AA Nickel Zinc rechargeables, 3:15

As you can see, and as has been reported before, the run time on AA's are pretty sad. BUT, thanks to Sebastian, it was discovered that this runs great with the Nickel Zinc rechargeables. Those batteries are fairly inexpensive from Amazon, and helps me to feel good about running this for awhile!

[stevetoney]

The run-time issue with the AAs would be solved if Tascam would ever come out with a damn firmware update on the unit. 

DAMMITALL...ARE YOU READING THIS TASCAM???    This unit has been out plenty long enough now.  Give us our bleeping firmware update already!!!

The issue is the low voltage cutout setpoint is set too high.  If that cutout were set lower so that the voltage drain didn't go down below that setpoint so quickly in the life of the battery, the run-times with those certain types of batteries (ni-mh rechargeables are the worst, as I recall) would be just fine.  Your zinc batteries work good because they run at a higher voltage.  Apparently this isn't an issue when the unit is operating from the internal li-ion.

[DigiGal]

I ran the Tascam DR100 mkii through battery run time tests. Here is what I got:

Unit running phantom power:
Internal Li-on battery, 3:30 (hours:minutes)
Duracell AA non rechargeable, 40 minutes
Powergenix AA Nickel Zinc rechargeables, 2:15

Unit recording a digital input:
Internal Li-on battery, 5:20
Duracell AA non rechargeable, 1:28
Powergenix AA Nickel Zinc rechargeables, 3:15

As you can see, and as has been reported before, the run time on AA's are pretty sad. BUT, thanks to Sebastian, it was discovered that this runs great with the Nickel Zinc rechargeables. Those batteries are fairly inexpensive from Amazon, and helps me to feel good about running this for awhile!

From those number the DR 100MKII looks like a good candidate for an external USB battery.

[stevetoney]

From those number the DR 100MKII looks like a good candidate for an external USB battery.

That's how I do it. 

So, what I do is first hook up my external.  Then as backup, I set my DR100MKII up so that the primary battery is the internal Li-ion, so that's the first one that get's hit if the external goes dead.  That way I have 5 hours of reserve power from the internal Li-ion (since I don't power my mics form the recorder) and finally I make sure there are two AA's in the battery compartment that provide 2 plus additional hours of secondary reserve power in case both my external and my primary internal battery go dead. 

Personally, people have been dissing this unit based on power, but I think it's fantastic specifically because of the power...it's got a better powering scheme than any recorder I've ever owned.  That said, if they'd implement the freakin' firmware patch I already mentioned, it would be even mo' better. 

[DigiGal]

Nice, dual redundancy, backup for the backup.

[Karl]

From reading other posts I understand that this will run forever on an external battery. But I'm in it for the portability! I love the fact that I can carry the rig in my hands if I need to, though will prob keep it in a laptop bag or similar.

[shownomarcy]

My only other general observation of the AT853 is that to make them sound "perfect" I am consistently having to reduce bass and add about 3db of treble in post production.

I agree.

[LikeASong]

My only other general observation of the AT853 is that to make them sound "perfect" I am consistently having to reduce bass and add about 3db of treble in post production.

I had the same "issue" (?) with my cardioid CA14s - I felt like a -3dB in the bass zone and a +3/+5 db (depending on the venue and music style) in the middle/treble always helped to get it perfectly right. I don't know it it'll happen again with my new CA14 omnis or not - still have to try them at a live concert!