Monglane
Well-known member
As I said I would in an earlier thread, I come back to you with the results of my tests of the Marantz PMD671 solid-state recorder.
Warning : my findings are nothing like actual benchmarking measurements, they're just what I heard and thought about it !
I recorded voice and ambient noise in an extremely quiet, non-reflective room, with two Sennheiser mics, one e835 (inexpensive, good quality, dynamic-type), one e865 (more expensive, excellent quality, condenser-type). The 835 doesn't need phantom power, the 865 obviously does.
I've used those mics for over a year now, both plugged directly into the DVX, so I'm very familiar with what they do sound like.
I've tested all sorts of settings on the recorder, from 16-bit, 44.1 kHz to 24-bit, 96 kHz, with two different XLR cables, one 3-meter, the other 10-meter long. The Compact Flash card was a Sandisk Ultra II 1 GB.
All in all, the modulation was excellent and faithfully reproduced what I was expecting in terms of mic performance. That was very satisfactory. The recorder is easy to setup and use, although I have doubts about its ruggedness in the field (plastic housing).
However, what bothered me somewhat was the presence of a slight amount of hiss clearly audible during the "ambient sound" (i.e., silent) portions. The hiss is there regardless of settings, mic type, cable type and length. It doesn't increase or decrease ; it's just there. It's virtually inaudible at normal listening levels, but I could hear it plainly with the volume turned all the way up. It is *very* audible when the sound files are played back on the Marantz itself, but that could be attributed to the poor quality of the on-board amp circuit, which is not designed to be hi-fi, after all.
I've come up with three different possible causes for that hiss :
1. S/N ratio of the mic input cicuitry is just not good enough ==> major bummer !
2. I haven't played back the sound files on a hi-fi system, so the culprit could be the sound card on my PC (mid-line SoundBlaster with THX-certified 2.1 JBL speakers... but I can't hear any hiss when I play sound files from the DVX).
3. Problem with the mains cord : I cut off the US plug to replace it with a European one and saw that there was no ground wire... Possible electrical insulation problem ? That cord is quite basic, but somehow I don't think the problem comes from there.
I'm not a very knowledgeable sound person, so I'll be delighted to hear comments and ideas from you guys.
Thanks a lot in advance.
Warning : my findings are nothing like actual benchmarking measurements, they're just what I heard and thought about it !
I recorded voice and ambient noise in an extremely quiet, non-reflective room, with two Sennheiser mics, one e835 (inexpensive, good quality, dynamic-type), one e865 (more expensive, excellent quality, condenser-type). The 835 doesn't need phantom power, the 865 obviously does.
I've used those mics for over a year now, both plugged directly into the DVX, so I'm very familiar with what they do sound like.
I've tested all sorts of settings on the recorder, from 16-bit, 44.1 kHz to 24-bit, 96 kHz, with two different XLR cables, one 3-meter, the other 10-meter long. The Compact Flash card was a Sandisk Ultra II 1 GB.
All in all, the modulation was excellent and faithfully reproduced what I was expecting in terms of mic performance. That was very satisfactory. The recorder is easy to setup and use, although I have doubts about its ruggedness in the field (plastic housing).
However, what bothered me somewhat was the presence of a slight amount of hiss clearly audible during the "ambient sound" (i.e., silent) portions. The hiss is there regardless of settings, mic type, cable type and length. It doesn't increase or decrease ; it's just there. It's virtually inaudible at normal listening levels, but I could hear it plainly with the volume turned all the way up. It is *very* audible when the sound files are played back on the Marantz itself, but that could be attributed to the poor quality of the on-board amp circuit, which is not designed to be hi-fi, after all.
I've come up with three different possible causes for that hiss :
1. S/N ratio of the mic input cicuitry is just not good enough ==> major bummer !
2. I haven't played back the sound files on a hi-fi system, so the culprit could be the sound card on my PC (mid-line SoundBlaster with THX-certified 2.1 JBL speakers... but I can't hear any hiss when I play sound files from the DVX).
3. Problem with the mains cord : I cut off the US plug to replace it with a European one and saw that there was no ground wire... Possible electrical insulation problem ? That cord is quite basic, but somehow I don't think the problem comes from there.
I'm not a very knowledgeable sound person, so I'll be delighted to hear comments and ideas from you guys.
Thanks a lot in advance.
