Portable ambiance sampler. Mp3 player or...?

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Psuper

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I want to do field recordings samples (ambiance, family, nature, sound effects). After exhaustive research and basic trial and error I've decided that the best way to go will be an MP3 player/recorder or similar devices that are compact, silent, and virtually lossless (Preferring wav or another lossless format for “keeper” field samples). I tried my laptop, Ive tried my old small tape cassette, I've used my camcorder. Main problems are noise, recording volume, and ease of use in the field. I believe the mp3 type recorder will be the perfect offset to those issues as long as it has good pickup and records in a fairly lossless format. I can settle for mp3 encoding but would prefer wav. There's not much info out there for the sampler guys, just for the music listeners.
Does anyone use these devices for making recordings for samples or ambiance? Is there any particular model I should investigate?
This is an example of what I mean in general, but I'm having trouble finding a large resource of information regarding field sampling with these kind of players/recorders:
http://michaeloster.blogspot.com/2005/07/iriver-ifp-899-review.html
http://www.f7sound.com/field-recording.htm

If you have any links or personal experience to share, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Psuper!
 
I have a mp3 player with a mic jack. It's an IRiver. I don't think they still sell the same model but it's very small. That in conjuction with a condenser that uses battery power would probably work pretty well. And it's tiny, and pretty much industricatble.
 
i had an iriver once upon a time. that thing sounded pretty damn good, with the stock earbuds.
 
Thanks guys for the replys. I had a good read on some of the ones you mentioned, and currently my main way of looking for units is hitting dealnews.com at the MP3 section and reading reviews hoping to find a gem. Thing is there's so many of them out there, but very few sites have any focus o their ability to record in the field and what kind of quality you can expect from the converters.

Looking through Taperssection right now and it appers to be just the reads I need.

Thanks again,

Psuper!
 
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