Looking for portable recorders under $800

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noisewreck

noisewreck

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I am looking for a portable recorder that's capable of recording in uncompressed 24 bit 44.1 or 48kHz format to do some field sampling (street noises, power tools, cars with noisy engines, nature sounds, etc). It will need to have somewhat decent mic pres but phantom power isn't necessary as I'll be most likely using a Shure SM7B.

Most of the stuff that I've looked at, for example this Marantz recorder is supposedly designed for stuff like speech and deposition recording. Do you think this would work for my purposes?

Can anyone recommend, preferably from personal experience something along those lines that would work for my purposes? What about the mic (that's the only one I have, but if you guys have better ideas, let me hear them as well).

Thanks.
 
I don't have any experience with them but I too have been researching these as something that I want in the future. That one and 660 are the only ones that I could see myself getting, their pretty loaded as far as 2 trackers go.
 
Thanks for the responce riffy. So, no one with actual experience with those things has anything to say, or no one has actual experience with those things?
 
My usual answer to these sort of questions: Hi-MD.

If you can live with uncompressed 16Bit 44.1kHz, then Hi-MD is the way to go. That should be good enough for outdoor recording, unless you really have to have 24Bit. Unlike old MD, Hi-MD is uncompressed. Each 1Gb disc will hold 1hr 35mins of uncompressed stereo, which should be ok. If you need more, just carry a few extra discs...

Rather than spending $700 on a recorder and then using an average mic (which kind of wastes the money you spent on the recorder), why not get Hi-MD for around $100-150 and then a decent portable mic pre and stereo mic? I think Audio Technica do some decent stereo outdoor mics. You could go line-in from the pre, although unfortunately it's stereo minijack which may put you off, so bear that in mind.

I've used my Hi-MD for outdoor recordings for a couple of years along with a cheap £100 Sony stereo mic, and the results have been pretty decent.

Just a cheaper way. If you really want that 24Bit quality, then go for the Marantz! :)
 
If you have the bucks then the Marantz IMO is definitely the way to go. The MD stuff is nice but is no where near the ease of use factor that the Marantz and others has. I have used my MD recorder for years doing wedding gigs and misc. recordings and while it works good, accomodating everything to 1/8" blows. Also the metering on the MD sucks. The Marantz stuff you just plug in your mic(s) and go. No messing around. One thing that MD has over the others is battery life - freaking great. Apparently only four hours with the Marantz.
 
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