Originally Posted by Samc

If anybody thinks the Zoom F8 will sound like a/any Nagra recorder they will be very disappointed when they hear them next to each other...it does not even come close in my opinion. Neither the recordings or the playback sound as good as the Nagra SD or the seven, even the little Sony PCM D100 sounded better.

All you guys commenting on the Stagetec consoles should use it first before commenting about it, I've used the Aurus more than a few times to mix live music...(with real musicians on real stages with real instruments using real microphones) and will say hands down that this is the best sounding digital console I've ever used and heard, and I've used most of them. The Studer Vista consoles come closest of the consoles I've used...and yes, you would have to do something really silly to overload the inputs, the Aurus can handle considerably higher input levels than any other console I have used.

Originally Posted by jwh1192

hi sam, are you in the states or other ??? since you have experience with the stagetec .. i know of the only 2 in the states at the moment

Originally Posted by Samc

I'm in Europe but I know of a few (Aurus and Crescendo) consoles on Broadway and in broadcast trucks in the US.

Originally Posted by TMetzinger

There are LOTS of things worse than cheap digital. There's all the cheap analog. Hell, in terms of fidelity, there's lots of the expensive analog that doesn't hold a candle to low and midrange digital gear made today.

I'm curious - is it your opinion that the cheap sound would come from the preamps in this device or from the A/D conversion?

I'd love to do an experiment sometime where some really good mics and preamps were used and then the line level inputs were fed simultaneously to a really high-end AD converter and to something like this unit, at the same sampling rate and bit depth. Then play back the files through a high-end DA converter and amp/speakers, and see if people could reliably tell the two apart in blind A/B testing.

Originally Posted by graywolf

24dbu is 4dbfs, certainly going to clip.

On the other hand say you are recording at -6dbfs, real hot, and have the limiter set for -2dbfs, the default. At -2db the limiter is going to cut in, and by 0dbfs it is fully on. And if the A/D is designed to handle +2dbfs it should be impossible to overload it because the limiter is preventing the level ever going over 0dbfs.

But you say, that the limiter is after the A/D converter so it will not prevent the preamp or A/D from overloading. Limiters work by reducing the bias, properly designed they should be reducing the bias on the pre, and maybe the A/D. That cuts the level at the A/D so it should not overload.

Where the problem comes in is thinking of the limiter as a separate black box that has no connection to the other stages. What it actually is is an adjustable automatic gain control. It can adjust the gain of the previous stages quite well. So as I said before, as long as the sound does not raise so fast it does not have time to react, it should work fine.

As I said in a previous post, I have mine set to come on at -6dbfs slow attack. That way it acts more as a compressor, reducing the gain slowly as the signal gets louder. I have been unable to overload the the recorder just by shouting into the mic.

There are advantages of having an analog limiter, but it is not that a digital one will not work.

Originally Posted by PaulHorowitz

out of curiosity i measured the current drain of an F4 when turned OFF; it's 75uA, which translates to about 3 years' battery life (new to exhaustion), based on a Duracell's datasheet capacity of ~2000mAh at low drain. so you don't need to remove the battery pack if you're storing it for a few weeks, etc.

Originally Posted by IronFilm

Black Friday Deal: The Zoom F4 is $499:

https://www.amazon.com/Zoom-F4-Multi.../dp/B01KZHQWY0

Damn, what a bargain! I spent more than that, but don't regret a single penny of it.

Originally Posted by valseTrage

To get an idea of the sound quality of my zoom f4, I made some comparison recordings against an RME UCX. I used 1 microphone at a fixed position and I did my best to keep the same instrument position as well. There is one piece on bass clarinet and one on clarinet, each piece is repeated twice on each recorder.

Originally Posted by JamesClark1991

The F4 is now discontinued. Hope they release a new model with the 32bit recording and a colour screen.

Originally Posted by DirkP

Where did you get this info? A google search for Zoom F4 discontinued finds no results.

Originally Posted by IronFilm

I hope it is not discontinued!

As I still think the F4 is a better recorder for many aspiring PSMs than an F6

Originally Posted by voltronic

Why do you think so? I'm asking as a current F6 owner, who nearly purchased an F8 instead.

Originally Posted by IronFilm

As if you're an aspiring PSM then 32bits is pretty much irrelevant to that line of work, while dual media slots, full size XLR outputs, dedicated PFL keys for each channel, hirose powering, shortcut key, etc etc do make a difference!