SOUND DEVICES 888 recorder

[AB52]

Thank you.  Have you had a chance to compare the Zoom F-series pres with any Sound Devices pres? 

[Maybe you are thinking of the quality of the old Zoom H-series pres, which were not the greatest.

If you are talking about the F-series, I find no fault with them with music recording.
[/quote]

[voltronic]

Thank you.  Have you had a chance to compare the Zoom F-series pres with any Sound Devices pres? 

I have a Shure FP24 preamp built in 2003, which is a rebranded Sound Devices MixPre.  Preamps on both sound great, which is to say that they don't have any sound of their own that draws attention to itself.  Some people like coloration in their preamps; I do not.

[AB52]

I have heard great things about that Shure preamp.  And I have always thought the original sound devices mixpre was underrated.    This is all good news!  I wonder who the Zoom engineers are?
It sounds like they have put money into good designers.

[aaronji]

Why am I suspicious of the Zoom mic pres?  Maybe they are fine for voice, but I would like to hear comparisons with the 788t or this 888 when it comes to music.

The specs are a bit better on the 888 and SD uses class A discrete pres designed in-house in contrast to the chip-based pres that I think Zoom uses. Unfortunately, Zoom doesn't specify noise. I doubt there would be much audible difference in most cases, although they may have some more subjective difference in how they sound. It would be nice to hear a well controlled comp.

In any event, I don't think it is an "apples-to-apples" comparison between the 888 and the Zoom F4/6/8n, or any other "prosumer" recorder (like the MixPre series), as the 888 has a ton of extra features. It also costs an order of magnitude more...

[AB52]

Would love to hear some sample comparisions - Zoom F series - SD Scorpio series. 

[voltronic]

Unfortunately, Zoom doesn't specify noise.

Yes, they do.  From F6 product page (same spec for F8N):

Equivalent input noise:    -127 dBu or less (A-weighted, +75 dB input gain, 150 Ω input)

888 product page:

Equivalent Input Noise     -131 dBV (-129 dBu) max (mic in, A-weighting, 76 dB gain, 150 ohm source impedance)

The one spec SD states that Zoom does not is THD+Noise.

[aaronji]

The one spec SD states that Zoom does not is THD+Noise.

That's what I was referring to, obviously, as that is the spec Zoom doesn't provide...

[heathen]

Have you had a chance to compare the Zoom F-series pres with any Sound Devices pres? 

I posted a comparison that Todd R and I did.  The thread is probably a year old or so, but it shouldn't be too hard to find.  If you're genuinely interested in an honest assessment of the two, you'll need to do a blind comparison (there is a plugin for foobar2000 that will facilitate this).

[voltronic]

The one spec SD states that Zoom does not is THD+Noise.

That's what I was referring to, obviously, as that is the spec Zoom doesn't provide...

Got it.  I'm not sure why they don't specify that.  For me, the Zoom F-series preamps are subjectively every bit as quiet as the older SD preamps I am familiar with, at least for my applications.

[dactylus]

Sound Devices 8-Series Recorder Comparison w/ 888 Unboxing - Gotham Audio -

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[IronFilm]

Why am I suspicious of the Zoom mic pres?  Maybe they are fine for voice, but I would like to hear comparisons with the 788t or this 888 when it comes to music.

Maybe you are thinking of the quality of the old Zoom H-series pres, which were not the greatest.

If you are talking about the F-series, I find no fault with them with music recording.

There was a MASSIVE leap forward from H series to F series, not just in greatly expanded feature set, but in terms of improved quality as well.

[dactylus]

Join Paul for an overview of the features available in firmware v3.10 for all 8-Series mixer-recorders!

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[dactylus]

8-Series Quicktip: Say Goodbye to 4GB File Size Limits with RF64


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax3gVm1nKaA

[voltronic]

8-Series Quicktip: Say Goodbye to 4GB File Size Limits with RF64


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax3gVm1nKaA

This is really great.  RF64 is a very new spec, and I hope we see this support added in other recorders.
EDIT: See Jerryfreak's post below.

Here is the official documentation:
https://tech.ebu.ch/publications/tech3306

[jerryfreak]

while spec has been revised recently, R64 itself has been around and in use for about 15 years

RF64 seemed to have grown out of sonic foundry's .W64 thats been around since around 2001 IIRC. .W64 was a staple of early 24-bit laptop tapers using vegas and sound forge

CAF is apple's answer which is used by metarecorder app among others

heres a blog from 2007 comparing the formats (older standard of R64)

http://blog.bjornroche.com/2009/11/wave64-vs-rf64-vs-caf.html

heres a 2016 gearslutz discussion for the various formats. At that time it seems RF64 was still somewhat limited in compatibility relative to .W64

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/1086321-do-you-use-rf64.html

heres a current thread on large formats

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/all-things-technical/1290097-overcoming-filesize-limitations-remote-recording.html#post14366272