Topic: Another "which hd recorder" thread (sorry)

[themicah]

I've read through a hundred threads looking for info on which recorder to get, and am still at a bit of a loss.

My wife is a singer who wants a simple portable recorder with a built-in mic for everyday recording of her practice sessions.  Quality when using the internal mic is not too important.  She's been getting by with an old $10 cassette recorder until now, so a little HD spin noise or mp3 compression isn't going to faze her.

She'd also like to be able to record performances, however, and this is where I start to demand a little more audio quality.  I'm not sure that we're ready to invest in super-hi-end mics, pre-amps, outboard DACs, etc.  But I would really like to be able to hook up a decent mic or two to a portable device and capture something that doesn't sound too amateurish.  And I might even want to try taping a few shows, too, as long as we have the equipment. 

Our priorities in rough order are:

• Internal mic
• Battery life and portability
• Built-in analog input (preferably mic level)
• Big maximum file-size
• Reasonable built-in DAC
• PCM (wav) recording capability (lower priority, but we'd like it)

I know many here are huge Nomad JB3 fans, but the lack of an internal mic pretty much kills it for us.

Flipping through various threads, it sounds like the iRiver H120/H140 (aka iHP-120/140) would probably be the best solution, especially if the Rockbox folks succeed in eliminating the 74 minute limit.  And we can live with the 74 minute limit anyway, if everything else about it makes sense.

The problem is that the H140 is virtually impossible to find.  I see only one for sale on eBay right now.  My wife is very interested in the newer snazzier iRiver H10 (and the similar iAudio X5).   But both of those appear to record only in mp3  and have only line-level analog inputs on an external cradle.

Does anybody here have any experience with the iRiver H10 or iAudio X5?  Are there other devices we should be considering?  We've thought about MD, but we'd also like to be able to easily transfer the files to our computers and web servers.  Plus my wife really likes the idea of having a recorder that is also an mp3 player.

Again, for our purposes digital input and fancy custom settings are mostly irrelevant.  We just want a simple device that records decently from an internal mic, and a little better from an external mic.

Thanks.

[Ed.]

Edirol R4, not really inexpensive, but it has internal mics and an internal hdd.

The internal mic thing defiinitely limits you, would it be too hard for your wife to run mics > battery box > jb3?  Its not really all that much extra work to keep track of some AT's and a battery box, plus you'll have a nice compact rig for taping live shows as well.  And you could probably get away with only spending around $300-$500 depending on what AT's you get and if you get them new or not.

[qpwoei]

Hi,

I own the iHP120 1 yr ago and yes, its a great machine for its size, and yes it's by now nearly impossible to find. Some comfort now: I also find it virtually useless to record using the internal mic because it get too much noise from the hd. If you hold it in your hand while recording... whoa, forget about it! But if you get a half-decent electret, or even the little one provided, is fine. The internal battery lasts forever, that's good too.

Now, I also have the R1 from Edirol and... not very happy. Yes it sounds good, but the size is weird, doesn't fit inside a pocked, low gain, noisy preamp, and digital effects which are useless to most people including me. The only reason that I purchased one was that it gives some indication of the levels while recording, which the iHP120 doesn't. In short, I regret not having chosen the Microtracker, with both level and clip indicators, and a lot other useful features...My advice: get one or... be ready to spend big bucks in a real recorder such as the R4, 671, etc

cheers

[Weazel]

qpwoei if you install rockbox on your iriver you have levemeterss now. and the fly gain and no fileze limit (2 gig fat32) continues recording in to a new file. and no glitches any more.

[rsimms3]

qpwoei if you install rockbox on your iriver you have levemeterss now. and the fly gain and no fileze limit (2 gig fat32) continues recording in to a new file. and no glitches any more.

Yes, I sold my first one before Rockbox got involved and turned around 10 months later and bought one used off of eBay.  $250 was the average price when I was looking to buy off eBay and got a deal at $212.  Hopefully they will continue development that will include optical input recording. 

[qpwoei]

qpwoei if you install rockbox on your iriver you have levemeterss now. and the fly gain and no fileze limit (2 gig fat32) continues recording in to a new file. and no glitches any more.

Yes, I sold my first one before Rockbox got involved and turned around 10 months later and bought one used off of eBay.  $250 was the average price when I was looking to buy off eBay and got a deal at $212.  Hopefully they will continue development that will include optical input recording. 

After some hesitation I have installed it , and WHOAAA, amazing! RB adds some many new features that the thing becomes a entirely new machine, now I wish I had purchased two iHP120 instead of one    
Thank you guys

[Weazel]

qpwoei if you install rockbox on your iriver you have levemeterss now. and the fly gain and no fileze limit (2 gig fat32) continues recording in to a new file. and no glitches any more.

Yes, I sold my first one before Rockbox got involved and turned around 10 months later and bought one used off of eBay.  $250 was the average price when I was looking to buy off eBay and got a deal at $212.  Hopefully they will continue development that will include optical input recording. 

yes, i  believe rockbox has increased the vallue of this player. before rockbox they were cheaper second hand.
oyes on the forum one of the devs told us that when digital in works, that with an external ADC the bitrate maybe even go up to 96/24. that would be  pretty cool if it works.

[rsimms3]

Probably my favorite part is the Flac support all the way up through level 8.  With most tapers are seeding in Flac these days, I can simply copy the files to the IRiver and listen to them anywhere I want without having to decompress, recompress to mp3, or burn CDs.  Saves a alot of time and resources.