[grc] Help me choose a recorder?

[Brian Edwards-Tiekert]

Several of my students have had good luck with Tascam DR-05, which is hard
to beat on price (about $65 from some outlets). The mic-in jack doubles as
a line-in jack, and the internal mics are adequate.

If you like Zoom's stuff, the H1 is also quite affordable at $100, and laid
out better for radio reporting than the H2. From what I gather (I haven't
played with one), it has the same limitations the H2 did -- the line-in
jack produces clipped audio at relatively low levels, and the mic-in jack
is hissy with low-output dynamic mics. The built-in mics on the Zooms,
however, tend to sound very nice.

At $200, I'll second Transom's recommendation of the Sony m10. Both the
built-ins and the external jacks produce very clean sound, there's a dial
for on-the-fly recording level adjustment that is *much* nicer than having
to press up and down buttons, and the thing makes a set of batteries last
for *ever*.

Also, the Sony records to micro SD cards, which is the format that many
smartphones with removable memory use. That means that if you're gathering
field tape on deadline, you can record something on the Sony, swap the card
into your phone, and then use the phone's data connection to send the audio
back to a studio.

-Brian

On Thu, Feb 26, 2015 at 10:46 AM, Brian Shiratsuki <settled at gmail.com>
wrote:

> On Tue, Feb 24, 2015 at 12:05 AM, Frieda Werden <wings at wings.org> wrote:
> > My old Zoom H2 is dying (both the external power supply and the line-in
> no
> > longer function) and I'm looking to choose a replacement...
>
> well, transom likes the sony m10. two other favored models are by
> tascam, and the third by sound devices is pricey and weighs ``less
> than three pounds.'' B&H offers the sony in three colors for $200.
>
> no experience here with portable recorders. however i have had two
> pocket audio devices (smart phones, as they call them) fail due to
> lint. a palm centro collected lint in the headphone / mic jack; the
> internal mic connection became flakey and eventually failed. applying
> a toothpick restored function.
>
> more recently a nexus 4 became difficult to charge through its micro
> USB charge / data connector. i had a wireless qi charger in my virtual
> shopping cart before figuring out how to clean out the connector using
> small pieces of thin cardboard.
>
> so maybe you can save the H2, if only for use as a backup.
>
> brian s
>
>
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-- 
Brian Edwards-Tiekert
KPFA 94.1 FM
1929 Martin Luther King Jr. Way
Berkeley, CA 94703
510.848.6767 x699
www.kpfa.org