Marantz PMD-706 Six Channel Recorder?

[datbrad]

Doug said the voltage rails can't support 4 channels of power hungry FET preamp chips. The Concert Mod chips are bipolar and draw less power, so its either all 4 channels Concert, or 2 Concert and 2 Warm

[lsd2525]

Doug said the voltage rails can't support 4 channels of power hungry FET preamp chips. The Concert Mod chips are bipolar and draw less power, so its either all 4 channels Concert, or 2 Concert and 2 Warm

Man I bet that warm mod would work well with my S502 Superlux.....

[ts]

Doug said the voltage rails can't support 4 channels of power hungry FET preamp chips. The Concert Mod chips are bipolar and draw less power, so its either all 4 channels Concert, or 2 Concert and 2 Warm

On Doug's order page it has concert mod on 1&2 and warm on 3&4. The deck in this thread says warm on 1&2. I guess you can request what mods go where?

[spyder9]

yea, warm on 1&2, ...not sure what he's calling the 3&4 mod, but I believe all the inputs have benefited.

3&4 -  he calls "concert mod"

So, he won't do a deck with all 4 inputs as a "warm mod" or all 4 inputs as a "concert mod"?

Or was this unit ordered with two channels of each?

shoot him an email.  He'll reply.....

[Nick's Picks]

I guess, as aforementioned...that you can get 4x concert or 2x warm / 2x concert (which is what I have).

[goodcooker]

Hmmm...the last time I spoke to support they recommended that I RMA my unit and they send me a new one. I wonder if Doug would take an unopened brand new one straight from Marantz, put it in his stock and sell me the modified unit as the purchased from him price.

If I understand correctly he is selling the mod on a unit he sells for around $400 all in. But he's charging $225 for the mod on a unit purchased elsewhere...

Also, used mine stagelip with the MBHO subcards Friday night no problems and it came out sounding really nice. Gave a line out to the video guys for their Zoom recorder and everything worked as it should. Weird how a couple of failures can make you so paranoid. Things have gotten real easy nowadays - not having to sweat SLA and AA batteries and watch my stuff like a hawk wondering if I'm going to make it through the show.

[Nick's Picks]

my first recording with the MOD'd deck sounds super nice.   Really tamed the harshness of the superlux s502 I used.
pardon the mp3, but it's the highest rate VBR I can make, and they sound fine, imo.   
http://nickspicks.com/music/s3t08-nicks_jam.mp3
this is one of the bands I play in.   recorded in a dingy bar...about 5' off stage.  Just a little improv.

[dallman]

Hmmm...the last time I spoke to support they recommended that I RMA my unit and they send me a new one. I wonder if Doug would take an unopened brand new one straight from Marantz, put it in his stock and sell me the modified unit as the purchased from him price.

If I understand correctly he is selling the mod on a unit he sells for around $400 all in. But he's charging $225 for the mod on a unit purchased elsewhere...

Doug gives a lesser price to anyone who buys the deck from him as he makes a profit selling the deck as well as the mod, so if he puts a new deck from another store in his stock, and pulls one out he for you is not making that profit. Plus he is then re-selling a warrantied item from another outfit. It does not make sense. It makes more sense to explain that you were an early adopter and ask for mercy and a possible deal. If you have purchased from him before, you never know.

[willndmb]

Hmmm...the last time I spoke to support they recommended that I RMA my unit and they send me a new one. I wonder if Doug would take an unopened brand new one straight from Marantz, put it in his stock and sell me the modified unit as the purchased from him price.

If I understand correctly he is selling the mod on a unit he sells for around $400 all in. But he's charging $225 for the mod on a unit purchased elsewhere...

Doug gives a lesser price to anyone who buys the deck from him as he makes a profit selling the deck as well as the mod, so if he puts a new deck from another store in his stock, and pulls one out he for you is not making that profit. Plus he is then re-selling a warrantied item from another outfit. It does not make sense. It makes more sense to explain that you were an early adopter and ask for mercy and a possible deal. If you have purchased from him before, you never know.

followed by telling Marantz the thing is a joke out of the box and you want a refund vs a new unit so you can buy a new one direct.
Good luck but doesn't hurt to ask

[dactylus]

followed by telling Marantz the thing is a joke out of the box and you want a refund vs a new unit so you can buy a new one direct.
Good luck but doesn't hurt to ask

^I would take this route and request a full refund, then buy a modded unit from Doug if you still wish to go this route.

[goodcooker]

followed by telling Marantz the thing is a joke out of the box and you want a refund vs a new unit so you can buy a new one direct.
Good luck but doesn't hurt to ask

^I would take this route and request a full refund, then buy a modded unit from Doug if you still wish to go this route.

I am likely to take the path of least resistance. I don't have a lot of multichannel stuff coming up - my work schedule is super hectic until the middle of May then I get some opportunities to record more often.

I can always use my MP2 > PMD620 - since my Schoeps active cables need to go back to Nicky for repair anyway I won't be running more than one pair of mics until I get them back.

I will probably just return it for a new one and buy one from Doug. Not sure I want to get in a tangle with Marantz and B & H over a full refund after the return expired. One of the comments that the support agent I talked to last made was "We have sold approximately 10K of these and this is the first time we are hearing about these problems"

Funny since our small user group here - everyone has had some kind of flub with this thing.

[ts]

followed by telling Marantz the thing is a joke out of the box and you want a refund vs a new unit so you can buy a new one direct.
Good luck but doesn't hurt to ask

^I would take this route and request a full refund, then buy a modded unit from Doug if you still wish to go this route.

I am likely to take the path of least resistance. I don't have a lot of multichannel stuff coming up - my work schedule is super hectic until the middle of May then I get some opportunities to record more often.

I can always use my MP2 > PMD620 - since my Schoeps active cables need to go back to Nicky for repair anyway I won't be running more than one pair of mics until I get them back.

I will probably just return it for a new one and buy one from Doug. Not sure I want to get in a tangle with Marantz and B & H over a full refund after the return expired. One of the comments that the support agent I talked to last made was "We have sold approximately 10K of these and this is the first time we are hearing about these problems"

Funny since our small user group here - everyone has had some kind of flub with this thing.

I emailed support about the two issues I was having multiple times. With the Oade mod I could live with the file not saving at power loss, but not the other issue I had. The constant locking up with "saving" in the display. That sucked and is why I sent it back to B&H and why I won't by another.

[Nick's Picks]

still really enjoying the change in performance after the Oade mod.   fwiw.    big improvement.

[goodcooker]

Went out and recorded Banditos the other night with my Aerco in front of the 706. Got a bunch of weird stuff from the Aerco - it's going back to Jerry -  but the 706 was solid.

Not my year so far...

[IronFilm]

How does the Marantz's pre amps compare with the pre amps of its close competitors in this niche: the Zoom H6, Tascam DR70D, and Zoom F4?