Topic: Sick of my D7....what should I get?

[som]

Tonight I had yet another missed recording with my "trusty" (ha!) old D7. It *said* tape was rolling, and I had good levels, but I get home and the tape had not moved an inch. So, the only recording in the world of Bryan Bowers at the Iron Horse in El Dorado, KS sadly never came to be. Sucks. I've had this happen several times over the past couple of years.

I don't tape much, and am happy with my AT mics and Church preamp. I just need a recorder that meets the following requirements:

- small, stealthy
- cheap
- easily powered with no external batteries (just some AA or something)
- not huge capacity (I don't tape festivals or mega-runs, just the odd concert here and there, so maybe 4-6 hours max)
- takes a mini-stereo line input
- RELIABLE

I haven't kept up with recording technology much. What do y'all recommend I look into? JB3 stil a good option? Others?

Thanks!

[BayTaynt3d]

H120/140 rockboxed or R9?

[lbgspam]

Funny, my post a couple months ago asked the exact same question -- replacing D7 with what.

I got the R09 and LOVE it...

[Nick Graham]

FWIW, and this is just my $.02, but I don't think you have any interest in 24 bit recording, correct? I'd go with the H 120. Built in harddrive, internal battery, USB 2.0 transfers.

[hyperplane]

I'm going to concur with Nick on this one: I think your best bet is the iriver h120 (a.k.a. ihp-120).

Even with the stock battery, you should be able to get a solid 6 hours of recording time per charge up.

[George]

Definitely a H120+rockbox.  It has line in/out, optical in/out.  I've been using it after selling my M1 dat and I like it better than the M1.  It's very sturdy, has never shutdown on me....has worked flawlessly everytime I've used it to tape.  It's very reliable and the meters are excellent. 

Plus, they can be found cheap on ebay. 

[Arni99]

yeah, my iriver h120 is the best piece i ever had ...with rockbox´s recording enhancement pack.


here the right-click/save as link to my recording with the iriver h120+rockbox+sp-cmc-8+bassfilter at 95Hz. pearl jam live in vienna on sept. 25th 2006
http://www.esnips.com/doc/91ba9dd8-9910-4341-949b-5bef121a5c49/rec_000230.mp3

[tapeheadtoo]

I used my trusty D7 from 94 to earlier this year, when it "died" for the very last time.  I got fed up with having to baby it everytime I touched it.  Even when I was extra careful I would get those dreaded misloads, when you can hear the tape getting munched... ughhh..  I finally got an R-09 and absolutely LOVE it.  Very user-friendly, stealthy as hell. 

[som]

Thanks for all of the replies! Looks like I have two highly recommended options, the R-09 or the H120. Time to do some homework.

Thanks and +T's all around.

[tfs8271]

   .mp3

yeah, my iriver h120 is the best piece i ever had ...with rockbox´s recording enhancement pack.


here the right-click/save as link to my recording with the iriver h120+rockbox+sp-cmc-8+bassfilter at 95Hz. pearl jam live in vienna on sept. 25th 2006
http://www.esnips.com/doc/91ba9dd8-9910-4341-949b-5bef121a5c49/rec_000230.mp3

[Arni99]

recording from radio on line-in I use mp3 sometimes for testing purposes to ckeck wether the daily builds of rockbox work fine or not.
lately i tried wavpack and it works great aswell.(lossless format like FLAC)=> makes about 4h55min until 2GB are done >=>wav makes 3h23min at 2GB.
live shows i record in wav quality of course ,).
if u mean the pearl jam song URL...i encoded it to mp3 for uploading.
the concert was recorded in wav....

[phr]

I'm amazed so many people are recommending a playback unit with a nonremovable proprietary lithium battery, for which the recording function is an afterthought.  I haven't used one myself so I can't say they're wrong.  But it wouldn't have occurred to me to suggest anything other than an R09 for this purpose.  It's a real dedicated recorder, solid state (no whirring hard disk), and runs 7 hours on rechargeable AA's.  I have a PMD660 right now but am going to switch to an R09 when I get some cash together.

[Brian Skalinder]

I'm amazed so many people are recommending a playback unit with a nonremovable proprietary lithium battery, for which the recording function is an afterthought.  I haven't used one myself so I can't say they're wrong.  But it wouldn't have occurred to me to suggest anything other than an R09 for this purpose.  It's a real dedicated recorder, solid state (no whirring hard disk), and runs 7 hours on rechargeable AA's.  I have a PMD660 right now but am going to switch to an R09 when I get some cash together.

Typically, budget drives the decision making process in situations like these.  The original poster specifically requested a "cheap" option.  While there are recording device options that are -far- more expensive than the R-09, I don't know that I'd consider R-09 (~$400) + SD card (~$75) a "cheap" option.  All depends on one's perspective, ultimately.  Both the H1xx and R-09 are options worth considering, IMO.

[gewwang]

If you want cheap, look at a used R1. I used the R1 from April 2005 - July 2006 and the only reason I switched to the R-09 was because the R-09 was in a smaller box and had a better display - not because I was unhappy with the R1's sound/ADC. The R-09 goes up to 24/48 instead of 24/44.1 but that wasn't a factor for me.

In fact, I still have my R1 and haven't used it since July. Contact me if you want to buy it with a 4GB CF card for cheap.

[thegreatgumbino]

I'm amazed so many people are recommending a playback unit with a nonremovable proprietary lithium battery, for which the recording function is an afterthought.  I haven't used one myself so I can't say they're wrong.  But it wouldn't have occurred to me to suggest anything other than an R09 for this purpose.  It's a real dedicated recorder, solid state (no whirring hard disk), and runs 7 hours on rechargeable AA's.  I have a PMD660 right now but am going to switch to an R09 when I get some cash together.

The iRiver batteries are removable & replaceable with the iPod batteries that can be purchased on Ebay for cheap (among other places).  The recorder already gets 6-8 hours record time, and the iPod batteries give ~16 hr record times.  Additionally, the HD's can be replaced in the iRiver's as well.  As for recording being an afterthought, the Rockbox firmware is definitely not that.  It is open source firmware that has been customized specifically for that purpose (recording). 

The iRiver H1x0 & H3x0 are thought to be the best budget 16-bit recorders currently available by many people on this board.  They're being recommended for a reason.