Marantz PMD 671 in the field Part 3...

[Since85]

Well, I left the lead at home and actually recorded three different bands successfully using only the ( AA Radio Shack battery holder as the internal sled in my 671. I removed the keying device on the stock Marantz sled and put it on the long sled available at Radio Shack. The difference between the two sleds is that the Radio Shack version has terminals that protrude out from it, where the Marantz sled contact points are more or less flush with the sled. I had to do a little surgery on the Radio Shack sled. Basically just bending the positive connector contacts a bit to make it fit in the sled holder area of the 671.

Before using the Radio Shack sled, I never had success with the Marantz sled in my 671 working reliably in the field.

Original Marantz sled on the left  - Modified radio Shack sled on the right

Very strange,

i have been using the Energizer 2500 mah batteries with the sled, and have not had a single incident! I saw that you used the Duracell batteries in your sled. I thought those had worked fine as well. Why do you think the radio shack sled works better than the Marantz one? I am getting paranoid about this now, even with a perfect track record thus far.

[Chuck]

Well, I left the lead at home and actually recorded three different bands successfully using only the ( AA Radio Shack battery holder as the internal sled in my 671. I removed the keying device on the stock Marantz sled and put it on the long sled available at Radio Shack. The difference between the two sleds is that the Radio Shack version has terminals that protrude out from it, where the Marantz sled contact points are more or less flush with the sled. I had to do a little surgery on the Radio Shack sled. Basically just bending the positive connector contacts a bit to make it fit in the sled holder area of the 671.

Before using the Radio Shack sled, I never had success with the Marantz sled in my 671 working reliably in the field.

Original Marantz sled on the left  - Modified radio Shack sled on the right

Very strange,

i have been using the Energizer 2500 mah batteries with the sled, and have not had a single incident! I saw that you used the Duracell batteries in your sled. I thought those had worked fine as well. Why do you think the radio shack sled works better than the Marantz one? I am getting paranoid about this now, even with a perfect track record thus far.

In my PMD671, and I suspect others, the contact points in the sled holder don't make good contact with the terminals on the stock Marantz sled. The Radio Shack sled has terminals that stick out maybe 3/32" that make better contact than the nearly flush contacts on the Marantz sled. Of course YMMV.

If you haven't had a problem, then I wouldn't change anything. I had not been able to run my deck, with internal batteries only, without a power hick-up until I used the Radio Shack sled. All is good in my world now. With external AA packs and the Radio Shack internal AA option working for me, I feel very good about using this recorder in the field. 

[Genghis Cougar Mellen Khan]

In my PMD671, and I suspect others, the contact points in the sled holder don't make good contact with the terminals on the stock Marantz sled. The Radio Shack sled has terminals that stick out maybe 3/32" that make better contact than the nearly flush contacts on the Marantz sled. Of course YMMV.

If you haven't had a problem, then I wouldn't change anything. I had not been able to run my deck, with internal batteries only, without a power hick-up until I used the Radio Shack sled. All is good in my world now. With external AA packs and the Radio Shack internal AA option working for me, I feel very good about using this recorder in the field. 

Perhaps one of your contacts is slightly bent in the recorder?  Either that or you got a defective sled.

Glad you got it resolved, and a good idea for a replacement sled if you need one in a pinch.

[Chuck]

In my PMD671, and I suspect others, the contact points in the sled holder don't make good contact with the terminals on the stock Marantz sled. The Radio Shack sled has terminals that stick out maybe 3/32" that make better contact than the nearly flush contacts on the Marantz sled. Of course YMMV.

If you haven't had a problem, then I wouldn't change anything. I had not been able to run my deck, with internal batteries only, without a power hick-up until I used the Radio Shack sled. All is good in my world now. With external AA packs and the Radio Shack internal AA option working for me, I feel very good about using this recorder in the field. 

Perhaps one of your contacts is slightly bent in the recorder?  Either that or you got a defective sled.

Glad you got it resolved, and a good idea for a replacement sled if you need one in a pinch.

I'm tempted to modify the stock sled, but I haven't found the right things to solder onto the existing contacts. I need something that comes out about 3/32", is conductive and solderable and small enough around that it can clear the inside of the 671 sled bay.

I did some measurements, with calipers, on the retractable contact points inside the sled bay and the stock sled and the keying device used on the sled. According to the measurments I did, on my equipment, there is barely enough length on the contacts in the sled bay to make contact with the stock sled contact points. Also, with the Radio Shack sled I get a firm "klunk" (locked in) sound when I put that sled into the 671 battery bay. I don't get that with the stock sled.

Again, maybe I got a bad sled, but I've seen posts by others about this very issue. I'm convinced that extending the contact points on my sled is a good thing. YMMV

Chuck

[sygdwm]

my sled "clicks" when locked in on both 671's i use. lucky, i guess.

[spcyrfc]

how does the acm do in low level acoustic recording environments?
i hear that it would not be suitable for recording conversation or f/x. 
luke

[Chuck]

how does the acm do in low level acoustic recording environments?
i hear that it would not be suitable for recording conversation or f/x. 
luke

You may not have enough gain for FX recording with the ACM 671. I recorded an amplified acoustic guitar duo (AKG C-481> ACM PMD671) with the 671 -10 db attenuater switch on and had to crank the levels full up to "10."

Doug does have a Super mod: http://www.oade.com/digital_recorders/hard_disc_recorders/PMD-671MODS.html that looks like would be great for that type of recording.

[macdaddy]

this has come up before... i was worried about the acm not having enough gain for some things, like a symphony. and i swear i read somewhere that the acm is what i want, and that the supermod is not suiable for recording music...

chuck wrote:

had you not run the -10 attenuator, do you thin you still would have had to run the acm wide open..?

[Genghis Cougar Mellen Khan]

this has come up before... i was worried about the acm not having enough gain for some things, like a symphony. and i swear i read somewhere that the acm is what i want, and that the supermod is not suiable for recording music...

In 671 in the field part 2 

http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=59611.msg861773#msg861773

[TenoRichards]

RE: the acm for acoustical should be ok, I think.

Just got this email from Doug....

Hi Andrew, nice to hear from you.

Yes, I feel the ACM is the best bet for recording any type of music. Did
you know DPA makes an XLR adapter that the 4060s plug into, this adapter
provides power for the mics form the P48 supply in the 671. This is a
very good solution...Doug

[esteyes]

well hello again folks. been a while since i posted last, but finally got some more CF info - ok, confirmation of what i have posted earlier. a buddy of mine used to work for a major broker/manufacturer of memory. he has confirmed the general construction theories i posted a while back. NOTE: i use the basic SanDisc 4G crads in my unmodd'ed 671 with no glitches.

so... basic cards write data to the chips just like your computer writes to a single hard drive. _fast_ cards write to the chips in the CF card much like a RAID array 0 [Level 0 -- Striped Disk Array without Fault Tolerance: Provides data striping (spreading out blocks of each file across multiple disk drives) but no redundancy. This improves performance.] - since the chips on the card are no faster than the chips on the "standard" cards, the controller splits the data and sends it to two different locations. for our uses - ie continuous write - this leads to errors as the controller or handler has to work continuously for 2 or 3 hrs.

so, i am going to get an 8G card from the above mentioned manufacturer as he guarantees the chips to be excellent quality from one of the good memory manufacturers and assures my bud the card will have the same dependable performance as my SanDisc cards. i will post after i get a hold of the card.

remember, the cheaper the card, the cheaper the chips on it and the less likely you will get solid performance.

nism

[spreadheadtom]

Finally got to run this thing last night.  I ran 24/48 with the -20db engaged for the first set.  Second set I tried it without the pad and wished I wouldn't have.  Levels just looked extremely low for the first set, but listening to it this morning, I was wrong.  The 414's sound sooo nice with this thing!

  Tommy

[Genghis Cougar Mellen Khan]

Finally got to run this thing last night.  I ran 24/48 with the -20db engaged for the first set.  Second set I tried it without the pad and wished I wouldn't have.  Levels just looked extremely low for the first set, but listening to it this morning, I was wrong.  The 414's sound sooo nice with this thing!

  Tommy

What type of music were you taping?  Acoustic, amplified?  Did you run out of gain with the -20db engaged?

That's a big concern of mine, the AKG's are hot mics. (or am I wrong?)

C 480 B comb-ULS/61:  Sensitivity 40/20/6,3 mV/Pa (-28/-34/-44 dBV) <--- I'm assuming the 480 has an attenuator switch?

C 414 B-XLS: Sensitivity 23 mV/Pa (-33 dBV) ± 0.5 dB

Schoeps MK41/CMC6: Sensitivity: 13 mV/Pa

DPA 4022:  Sensitivity, nominal, ±2 dB: Nominally 7 mV/Pa (at 1 kHz)

Am I reading these specs wrong or are AKG mics way hotter than DPA and Schoeps?

[spreadheadtom]

What type of music were you taping?  Acoustic, amplified?  Did you run out of gain with the -20db engaged?

It was amplified (asylum street spankers), but very quiet.  With the pad engaged, I had the gain run wide open.

[Genghis Cougar Mellen Khan]

What type of music were you taping?  Acoustic, amplified?  Did you run out of gain with the -20db engaged?

It was amplified (asylum street spankers), but very quiet.  With the pad engaged, I had the gain run wide open.

The 414's have thier own pad (-6 dB, -12 dB, -18 dB) did you use the mics own attenuation at all?  Any idea how far from 0 you were?