Zoom H2, Marantz PMD 620 And Sony PCM D50: Shootout Down By The River
March 24, 2008
Are you ready for a good, old fashioned shootout? In part one, Owen O'Malley takes the Zoom H2, Marantz PMD 620, and Sony PCM D50 out on the town to see how they hold up to Chicago's wind.
Since the idea behind a field recorder is quick and easy recording at the push of a button, we just opened the boxes up, got out of the office and rolled film. Zoom's too-subtle button layout caused a misfire on the first attempt, Marantz's PMD 620 had latency issues and a limited sensitivity adjustment that wasn't easy to operate on the fly and Sony's PCM D50 took the cake with superior audio quality, easy configuration and adjustable stereo mics.
Stay tuned to see how these pieces perform in other situations.
Visit Zoom's official website, Marantz's official website or Sony's official website for more information
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Zoom:
Location Sound:
Where's the fcuking summary print page?
I'm not downloading some fcuking vidz.
P L O N K
it's part I
This is part one. We'll be doing a wrap-up at the end of the series.
MSRP?
These are not the correct MSRPs for these recorders. MAP on the Sony is $499.99, and $399.99 on the Marantz. The MSRP for both products is much higher than stated.
thank you
I double checked that against what I've got here, and you are totally correct. Thanks for catching that.
WTF This has GOTTA be the
WTF This has GOTTA be the least helpful video in the world! Did you mutherfuckers even watch this!? "oh theres a tree" WTF!?
The H2 ships with a foam windscreen!!!!!!!!!!! WHY IS THE GUY SHEILDING THE WIND WITH HIS HAND!? OWEN IS A CLOWN!!! YOU DONT MENTION THE WUALITY OR ANYTHING USEFUL AT ALL!!! IM EMBARRASSED FOR YOU. Bill what the fuck!?
actually....
There are three of these. One point we wanted to make was that the H2 is the ONLY one that ships with a windscreen. It's pretty ridiculous that both the marantz and the sony do not come packaged with windscreens when this is an obvious item you would include in the box. It did not make sense to use a windscreen on one and not the others. That is part of the experiment. We wanted to see how sensitive the mics on each were. I think in the context of all three videos, this will all come to make sense. Notice that the marantz even has trouble in a studio setting (lots of bass response to ANYTHING).
Believe me, if all three came with windscreens, I would have been throwing them on each one. That's why we test in non-windy environments as well.
In the next video, we test indoor ambiance, fx recording, and in the third we look at studio recording.
Also regarding the "there's a tree"...that's a train.
Marantz
This latency issue mentioned in the piece has been corrected by Marantz. They currently have the firmware upgrade off their website, but if you contact them via email, they will send you the file. I heard both latency problem and the firmware correction does eliminate it. To be fair to Marantz, you should add a screen saying that it has been corrected.
I did contact Marantz about a foam screen for the PMD620 and at present time they dont have one. Thinking of getting some basic foam and trying to put one together. Overall, this unit has great sound quality. I was doing field work last week in Northeastern Wisconsin and it did a real good job. I'm still learning about it, so some of my recordings probably arent as good as they should.
Another way to eliminate the wind problem with the Marantz is to connect regular microphones to the unit. I purchased a stereo 1/8th inch plug/xlr splitter and had two mics working on the Marantz. did a good job and as i had windscreens on those mics, did pretty much eliminate the wind noise.
thanks, steve!
I noticed that with the zoom h4 as well, which we did not include in this video. With the onboard mics, it's really difficult to control sensitivity. Hook up an SM-58 or my Sennheiser shotgun mic, however, and you've got great audio.
People kept asking us why we did not use the windscreens, and it's because the sony one had to be purchased separately (which we include in our sony review) and the we thought it would not be fair to use the h2 windscreen. It's good to know that Marantz fixed the latency issue.
Zoom H4
I have purchased one of those earlier, primarily because they have xlr inputs built in. Now that i have my PMD620, think i'm going to use that more often. Quality seemed a bit better on the pmd620. I do cover some races at the Milwaukee MIle and I'll be curious to see the quality of the PMD620 on the cars racing and time trials. The H4 didnt do a bad job; but one problem with the H4; you need to double hit the record button to get it to record. I forgot a couple of times and the recording that i thought I had, i didnt. Nice about the PMD620, you press record, it records!
Am considering trying to build a windscreen for the pmd620. Lets see if some foam and contact cement will work!
ha ha
great DIY fix. You could probably try the muppet-like fuzzy cloth like you find at the fabric store.
I hate the double record button. I've lost many a DJ interview from operating the H4 and forgetting to do that.
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