Recorder With Good Preamps?

T

tommygdawg

Well-known member
Hey all,

I've had the Tascam DR-1 for quite sometime now and it has served me okay, but I'm looking to upgrade to something that won't give me a metric nut-ton of hiss when I boost the gain so I can move the shotgun mic more than a foot from the person I'm recording. I've looked into the H4n but I hear the preamps aren't that great. Any good choices around the $300 dollar mark? Also, what about buying a standalone preamp to be the middleman between the mic and the recorder?


Thanks!
- Tommy
 
If you don't mind the extra piece of gear, a good pre-amp middleman will probably offer up the best value/quality. Even on my Tascam 2488 I like to run vocal mics through a stand alone pre-amp.
Go to Guitar Center/B and H, etc online and take a look. There's some pretty nice small form, relatively inexpensive pre amps available that will give you more headroom/less noise.
 
This does belong in the Audio forum.

You aren't going to find a recorder with good pre-amps in the $300 range. You may find one with comparitively better pre-amps (like the DR100 vs. the H4n), but not one with good pre-amps. The lowest you can expect to spend and get formidable performance is about $600 for the Fostex FR-2LE. Next up: the TASCAM HD-P2 or DR680, both about $1000 (and a choice between 2-track/stereo recording and six-track recording). And it'll be more expensive if you want to get either the FR-2LE or the HD-P2 with an Oade Brothers modification.

If you want to add a pre-amp to the front end of your recorder, the budget option is the Sound Devices MM-1. The MP-1 is less expensive, but the extra features of the MM-1 are worth the investment. The next step up is the MixPre, or better the MixPre-D. All are battery operated.
 
If you are after high quality mic preamps for low cost, you might want to look at Naiant mic preamp boxes : Naiant Mic Preamp Boxes : Starting at $200

Then feed the output from the Naiant box to a Sony M10 recorder : Sony M10 Recorder $229 at B&H

I've read that the Sony M10 has a noise floor in the -85 dB range, which is very good for a low cost recorder.

...Or you could play it safe and buy a JuicedLink box and feed the audio from this to the Sony M10 : juicedLink CX231 Audio Mixer and Preamplifier : $299

JuicedLink boxes have pretty good preamps.

You can find a ton of info on lots of unique audio solutions on the The Tapersection Forums
 
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Thanks much! Any specific thoughts on the quality of the preamps in the JuicedLink lines? Specifically, the much cheaper version without Phantom Power (because I don't need Phantom power for this application).
 
Just another thought, you might also consider the Sound Devices MP-1 mic pre, and run that into your DR-1. Very high quality, clean gain.
 
tommygdawg said:
Any specific thoughts on the quality of the preamps in the JuicedLink lines? Specifically, the much cheaper version without Phantom Power
Click to expand...

I have only used the model with phantom power, but I imagine they would be the same. Unless this is a one off purpose that you will never use again for anything else, I would recommend getting the model with phantom power, as it opens up a much larger range of professional mics that you can use ( most pro mics are not self-powered ), and will be easier to sell if you decide to upgrade to something better.
 
TheDingo said:
I have only used the model with phantom power, but I imagine they would be the same. Unless this is a one off purpose that you will never use again for anything else, I would recommend getting the model with phantom power, as it opens up a much larger range of professional mics that you can use ( most pro mics are not self-powered ), and will be easier to sell if you decide to upgrade to something better.
Click to expand...


You raise a good point, I'm just trying to weigh which things to spend money on. I'm shooting a huge project this summer and a $100-200 dollars or more saved would be REALLY nice.
 
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