Zoom H6 or Tascam Dr-680?

[bobboyer]

With my recording hobby shifting from studio to more on-location work with local bluegrass bands, I'm looking at the aforementioned two recorders. I'm going to try the Zoom out (the campus library has several to loan out) but won't get an opportunity to try out the Tascam so I'm wondering if any of you have thoughts on either or both? I'll be using three condenser mics (two for the room and one for the group to gather around), so the ability to deliver phantom power reliably is an issue as well as pure sound quality and ruggedness. I plan to use the internal mic pre's to keep it simple plus I'm betting they're better than those on any Mackie that's small enough to cart around anyways.

Ergonomically, I lean towards the Tascam as the inputs on the Zoom strike me as a design that might lead to a trip hazard plus I like having individual channel outs in case I ever wanted to mix directly from it. For now, though, I'll be loading the files from the card onto my Macbook and mixing with Adobe Audition (it came on my computer) through a Tascam UH-7000 converter to my 2 track reel to reel plus keeping archive copies of the final mixes on the computer.

Thoughts? Thanks!

 

[Elliottina]

I haven't had first hand experience with either of those, but looking at them I would have thought the Tascam would be better suited for what you want.

Having said that, with the price of the Tascam have you considered something like the Zoom R24? I have a Zoom R16 which is the model under the R24 and have been very happy with it. The R24 will cost you less than the Tascam, and give you twice as many mic inputs (6 with phantom power, and 1 with a hi-Z input if you want to plug a guitar/bass straight into it). It records straight on to an SD card so it's easy to transfer to your computer. Yes it will be slightly bigger than the units you have mentioned, but it is still as easily portable as a laptop, and with the lower price and more inputs so you can use more mics/get better mixes it might be worth considering. I take my R16 to my band practices whenever we are working on new things and want to demo them, and it is very easy to carry around/set up anywhere.