TASCAM DR-680 portable 8-track #6

[2manyrocks]

It's plainly obvious that Tascam has made some upgrades to the mkii to get more life of out their existing production line tooling which means more net profit.

Timecode is something that also interests me, but I'm afraid I don't know enough about it.  My GH3 has internal timecode, but there's no input to eternally sync it.   

Because of the upgrades to what kind of cards the mkii will accept, I'm wondering if you can use a mkii with an original 680 or if you can only link two of the same model?

edit:  now seeing the mkii at B&H for $599 preorder.

[lukpac]

Apparently didn't get a notification about new posts...

C. With some microphones, the DR680 is reported to have unacceptable amounts of preamp noise (+12dB) when the phantom power is set to ON, there is even a mod indicating how to get rid of this problem - apparently the filtering capacitor of 0.5 uf (2x1uF in series) used to filter the phantom power just at the node before the feeding resistors of 2x3.3 kOhms is much too low to eliminate the audio noise
generated by the internal 48 V converter, so replacing those capacitors is needed for a 12 dB preamp noise improvement with certain mics.

Can't say I've ever noticed a problem. When first turning phantom on there's sometimes some noise for a few seconds, but I've never had any sustained noise past that.

F. Badly designed speaker - hissy, impossible to turn off except with a jack plugged in the auto-sensing Headphone-out jack

You can just turn the volume down.

G. Badly designed headphone amp - very noisy, digital volume control unresponsive, lags behind and sounds like a zipper file, without zero-crossing detection

It could be better, but it works.

H. TRS Jacks 5/6 can cause popping on recording (one unit here had such a problem, was fixed with a contact cleaner called Progold)

I did have an issue once where there was a problem with contact and phantom and/or the mic signal was getting interrupted. Since then, I've made sure to move the plugs in and out and around a bit before recording to prevent any such issues.

K. Support with TASCAM is pretty bad, they apparently want to have 3 tries at repairing the unit before replacing, which could mean up to two months for somebody in the states, but a lot more for someone like me, living in Eastern Europe.

Some people have certainly had issues, but (fingers crossed), I've been using mine a few months short of 2 years, and haven't run into a problem yet. AC power, a few different brands of SD cards (none listed in the approved media list AFAIK), combination of line-in and mic (both dynamic and electret). The biggest issue I've had is running digital in on 7&8 can be confusing. It works fine, it's just easy to do something wrong.

[2manyrocks]

"...it's just easy to do something wrong."  Agree.  Otherwise, there wouldn't have been so many prior posts asking the question "how do I ?" of one kind and another.  Although Tascam has apparently addressed some of the physical issues with the unit, it is not the easiest recorder to use, IMO.  That's why mine sits unused so much.  You can't expect to just start recording without studying the thing. 

[lukpac]

"...it's just easy to do something wrong."  Agree.  Otherwise, there wouldn't have been so many prior posts asking the question "how do I ?" of one kind and another.  Although Tascam has apparently addressed some of the physical issues with the unit, it is not the easiest recorder to use, IMO.  That's why mine sits unused so much.  You can't expect to just start recording without studying the thing.

Well, I agree for using the digital input. But I thought it was pretty straightforward using the analog inputs.

It will be interesting to see how the preamp setup compares with the MKII. As I previously noted, if you're recording relatively low level stuff like acoustic instruments, especially with dynamic mics, setting the gain switch to LOW and turning up the gain results in significantly more noise than setting the switch to HIGH and turning down the gain. Not a big deal once you are aware of the issue, but it doesn't seem like the best design.

[tomuo]

Somebody asked about op-amps on the mkII. 
The mkII uses a better sounding op-amp compared to the mkI.   (BA2115 instead of BA4580)
Only the DR-70D has the NE5532 op-amp.

I thought I mentioned this before, but the Headphone knob is improved on the mkII as well - better taper and finer control.

[Chuck]

Somebody asked about op-amps on the mkII. 
The mkII uses a better sounding op-amp compared to the mkI.   (BA2115 instead of BA4580)
Only the DR-70D has the NE5532 op-amp.

I thought I mentioned this before, but the Headphone knob is improved on the mkII as well - better taper and finer control.

Thanks for sharing the info tomuo!

[hi and lo]

Somebody asked about op-amps on the mkII. 
The mkII uses a better sounding op-amp compared to the mkI.   (BA2115 instead of BA4580)
Only the DR-70D has the NE5532 op-amp.

I thought I mentioned this before, but the Headphone knob is improved on the mkII as well - better taper and finer control.

Tom - Has Tascam addressed the chronic overheating problems with the DR-680 and if so, how? Also, as the power input protection been enhanced? The first two 680s I owned were immediately fried or had firmware corruption due to improper dc input power protection.

[PiotrSzmidt]

Hello everybody, long time reader.

I've read whole 6 threads about DR680. I'm also owner MK I for a year now. I did a capicator mod myself and i must say i can see a difference.

Also about battery power i build a power supply myself. Can say that its checked for more than a 6 months of use and its very good and stable. No problem with overheating and its very efficent.

I used LI-PO battery 11,1 V 25C 10000 mAh (like this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/10000mAh-11-1V-ZOP-25C-Li-poly-Lipo-Battery-For-Car-Boat-RC-Airplane-Plane-/271587643995) connected to power stabilizer/converter (http://botland.com.pl/przetwornice-step-up-step-down/2127-przetwornica-regulowana-step-upstep-down-s18v20alv-4-12v-2a.html).  This converter is essetnial: you can put any DC voltage from range 2,9 V ti 32 V and you can set (useing multimeter) a desire output voltage in a range between 4V to 12V, and its also giveing max 2A power on the end. I know that its 500mA less that's on the AC power adapter, buts by my test its a bit more thats realy needed - checekd on working unit, all 3 phantoms ON and recording.

This battery give me about 7-8h of recording at least. Never used all. Also there is one more thing thats good with that stabilizer. If the battery is fresh after charge it will give you a bit more  (still less than 12V, but in case of other kind of battery - perhaps higher voltage - it will drop the voltage down to 12V). With time when the battery discharge the voltage will drop, so the converter will upscale the voltage to 12V - cost of capicty of the battery. If the converter will not able to scale the voltage more, and the output voltage will drop more than 1V it will cut off the circut - so the unit will switch to internal battery.

Edit: Also the good idea is to add LiPo Buzzer, not to destroy battery cell with overdischarging.

Hope that helps.

[ttrego2003]

Where does everyone set there mix levels for independent channels and stereo mix too??

Todd

[bdasilva]

Preorder 599.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=1116651&Q=&is=REG&A=details

[EarlyMorningRain]

Hello everybody, long time reader.

I've read whole 6 threads about DR680. I'm also owner MK I for a year now. I did a capicator mod myself and i must say i can see a difference.

Hmm, are you taking orders?

[Chuck]

What capacitor did you swap?

[PiotrSzmidt]

Capicators for P48 mod. Ill search the gerslutz for revelant topic with instruction. Its realy simple task. Takes about 30 min if you got just basic skilla wit soldering.

Ok, so the oryginal post of Bert from Audiomaster: http://www.audiomastersforum.net/amforum/index.php/topic,8654.45.html

Also the schema: https://www.gearslutz.com/board/remote-possibilities-acoustic-music-location-recording/889971-tascam-dr680-opinions-alternatives-2.html

And how its look like to do (photos by @pwhodges)

[Chuck]

Awesome. Thanks!

[lukpac]

So if I understand correctly...the capacitor mod is to reduce noise when using phantom power? Can somebody indicate when the noise occurs? Only with certain mics? True condensers? Electrets? Dynamics?

I know - at least with my unit - that if I'm using a dynamic mic, there's no perceptible difference in noise if phantom is on or off. I don't have any true condensers, and I haven't (yet) done any comparisons with the electrets I do have (which of course would require another preamp for comparison).