Zoom H4n Replacement
On 2019-09-04 13:16:36 +0000, Scott Dorsey said:
In article ,
Michael Beacom wrote:
My Zoom H4n died, Im looking for a roughly equivalent replacement.
If I were king, it would be a Sound Devices MixPre-10 II. Sadly, I'm
not, and the Mix-Pre crushes the budget.
What are your favorite models with at least 2 phantom powered XLR mic
inputs, in the $200 - $300 range? (More channels are nice.)
Your choices are the Zoom models or the Tascam models. Tascam makes two
lines, one for general purpose handheld stuff, and one specifically for
use with DSLRs. In the handheld line, I think the cheapest one with
XLRs is the DR40 which is definitely in your price range.
However... if you can stretch your budget another $100 you could get the
Tascam DR-680 Mk II, which gives you six tracks and surprisingly good
preamps. (Avoid the original DR-680, which turns up used at good prices
but which is comparatively quite noisy).
I don't know the Tascam DSLR line but it might be worth looking at. I like
the Tascam user interface better than the Zoom for the most part, but you
may not.
--scott
The original thought was for a hand held recorder, and the Zoom H5 or
H6 was the
first thought.
But then, you mentioned the DR-680MKII. Another good idea, so I had a
look on e-bay.
I found a 680 MKII, and a nice looking K-Tek bag for $325- from the
photos look good execpt for
a crack on the top front of the case. Even if the recorder is a dud,
there's the case.
Another recorder is listed as a DR-680, but the pictures show it to be
a DR-680MKII, in excellent
cosmetic shape, for $50, as it 'works with problems'
From the listing:
"Last time I used this at a wedding, I could not get any levels to show
so I thought it wasnt working,
but when I checked the file it did record everything. Something is
going that makes the audio levels
not show."
The incorect listing and his decription of the problem makes me wonder
if it was operator error...
And another e-bay listing for a NIB DR-680MKII for $300.
Thanks for the comments, you have confirmed that my notion that Tascam
& Zoom are my choices.
Now I have to decide how much I value the size.
Cheers
Mike
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