Portable Handheld Recorders: which one is the best?

[just.sounds]

SONOSAX Audio equipment manufacturer
The mini r82 is very nice

[ONDRAY]

The B&H Show Down - YouTube - Guide to Portable Digital Recorders

Sony PCM-D50 - YouTube - SONY Electronic part 2 of 2 PCM-D50

Zoom H2 - YouTube - JESUITS - 'gadget' Ep74 - Samson Zoom H2

Zoom H4 - YouTube - JESUITS - gadget @ TTS -Ep4- Samson Zoom H4

Tascam DR-1 - YouTube - Tascam DR-1 / YouTube - NAMM 2008 Tascam DR-1 Portable Digital Recorder

M-Audio MicroTrackII - YouTube - NAMM 2008 M-Audio Micro Track II Portable Digital Recorder

Edirol R-09HR - YouTube - [Musikmesse 2008]Edirol R-09 HR and R-44 / YouTube - 【石橋楽器店】EDIROL / R-09HR デモ・ムービー

[Spec]

the only portable i have own is the zoom H4. had it for a couple of months now and for the most part i have been pleasantly surprised by the quality of the on-board mics. i have been recording birds, thunder, rain and other classic field recordings lately. i have imported them into tracks i am writing and agin it fits nicely within my 24/44 trqacks no problems at all.

i have also recoreded some dj sets using the XLR inputs and again been pleantly surprised by the quality of the recording.

sure this is no sony PCM-D1 but here in australia that retails for close to 3K!!!

my criticism of the H4: (i) the plastic body is cheap and doing location stuff i would hate top drop the zoom. (ii) battery life sux. i get about 3.15 hours recording using the best alkaline batteries.

the fact it has XLRs and you can also use phantom powered mics - unlike any other budget priced recorder is also a real plus.

if i was to get another recorder tomorrow i would look at the cheaper sony OPs have talked about but it is almost twice the price of the zoom H4. right now that sony is aboput $500 USD.

the olyimpus LS-10 and yamaha CX are both worth a look as well with metal bodies and far superior battery life if that is a concern to you.

but overall not withstanding the limitations (not to mention it is a bit clunky looking by todays standards) the zoom is great value, flexible and sounds surprisingly good for the cost $250 USD. as i said its not super pro-audio but putting recordings in tracks is fine to my ears.

spek

ps the only other issue worth mentioning is that the zoom does not record low frequencies that well. my thunder recordings were a little thin from the onboard mics. however outside the really top end portablers i ma not sure many will record low end that well with the onboard mics.there is a good discussion of the zoom here:

Review: Zoom H4 Handy Recorder | O'Reilly Media

[NorseHorse]

I also vote for the H4. The Sony PCM D50 costs $200 more (%66 more) and doesn't have XLR inputs! Seriously, the H4 is so much more flexible for what I'm looking for. I can use any mics I want without an additional mic pre.

The Sony would come in handy if I were doing a fan-film of Star Trek. It looks like one of those cool handheld medical sensers...

EDIT: I should add that I have personal experience with the H2, H4, Marantz, and M-Audio Microtrack.

[mixerguy]

Originally Posted by NorseHorse

I ....The Sony PCM D50 ..... doesn't have XLR inputs! ......

bummer!

i wonder if they will fix this in the next model?

[Jim vanBergen]

I have two of the H4's. I bought them when they first came out, and were around $225 each, which was a steal, and still is at that price.

They are great for utility stuff like a rehearsal archive...but nothing to write home about for conversion, ease of use, etc. Yes, I have done real recordings on them, but I hate to say, even with outboard preamps and schoeps, I'm not impressed by the sonics. You DO get what you pay for!

Given the $$, I'd try to buy something better, but for down & dirty, it's a really useful cheap tool, and the size is right. I recently did a theatrical recording with two of them, one with a pair of 8040s using the onboard preamps, and one with line level from the mixing console. The line level recording was weird- the noise floor was VERY audible when there was no signal from the mixer, which is very upsetting. The recording with the 8040s sounded OK but was not quite as clean, for obvious reasons- reflections and mic locations. Still the client was happy, as they simply wanted an archive at the last minute for the piece's development, not a cast album.

Hope this helps.

[tympanica]

hey folks. After testing all of these recorders under a grand over a year at a shop where I work I had to swallow the hard pill that THE MICOTRACK II is " the best" bang buck todate. Because the sony is great But its to big! and no xlr, no rca spdif and to expensive,heavy and beautiful to stand on a punk rock concert in the first row or just to carry around anyday! the microtrack can! Just clip the external mic on your jacket, press hold and go rockin! It can record for over 4 hours! Also as backup system after a good ad converter or with a preamp! It has the best specs on paper if you use the metal! trs ins. Use it with an external mic like a neumann tlm 103 km 84 or even a rode or a pair of sennheiser me64 + k6 with battery and you can achieve studio quality. and now just 229 euros... thats hard to beat. Even the new nagra only has 16 bit, 48 k, no spdif, only 1 gb internal memory and no 48 V. the zoom h2 is noisy and lacks of highs, for sure no 48V and really noisy if you use external mics even battery powered ones. No comparisson to the microtrack. marantz, edirol also plastic no trs or xlr, no spdif. the yamaha cx a bad joke. It´s SIMPLE...if you want it serious there are nagras, sound devices, korg mr 1000, thinkpads x + usb interfaces, even FOSTEX FR2 LE ( nasa use it) but all these solutions are just to BIG! mikrotrack is just in your jacket, not expensive, just a workhorse which is there when you need it to record that freakin sound, where all the other recorders are at home waiting for their field recordering day!!!!! And the micro also could do a nice job on that day. And yes it has a build in acu, and yes maybe It will die in two years, but hey, i heard the i pod also has, so my 2 cents.