Hi,

I'm getting ready to buy a hand held stereo digital recorder, [to use
for direct line in, with a microphone, and for dubbing tapes off] and
noticed the
Archos Gmini 400 [mainly an mp3/vid player] records stereo wav files
thru a mini plug.
The main difference between the Archos and the M-Audio is that it comes
with 20 gigs of recording space, whereas the M-Audio only accomodates
Compact Flash media, which
are about 150$ for 4 gigs. The Gmini goes for about $300 and the
Microtrack is $400.

Has anyone been able to compare these? Would it be safe to assume there
is a large
difference in quality of the preamp since the Archos is primarily an
Mp3 playback device,
or are they all about the same now?

thx,

itchy

wrote:

Hi,

I'm getting ready to buy a hand held stereo digital recorder,

Why does it have to be hand held?

[to use
for direct line in, with a microphone, and for dubbing tapes off] and
noticed the
Archos Gmini 400 [mainly an mp3/vid player] records stereo wav files
thru a mini plug.
The main difference between the Archos and the M-Audio is that it comes
with 20 gigs of recording space, whereas the M-Audio only accomodates
Compact Flash media, which
are about 150$ for 4 gigs. The Gmini goes for about $300 and the
Microtrack is $400.

And the Microtrack has mic inputs.

Has anyone been able to compare these?

Not me. For music only I would look at the Archos Gmini 202 without
analog inputs. You do not say you need video, why pay for it?

Would it be safe to assume there is a large
difference in quality of the preamp since
the Archos is primarily an Mp3 playback device,

Assuming always tends to be unsafe, but one can assume that it is not as
good at making mp3's as a good codec on a stronger processor because it
has limited processing power.

or are they all about the same now?

The Archos has put money into video, and then there is only so and so
much to make the audio part of it for, but still ... it could go either
way, neither is likely to be perfect .... you will have to be the one
that chooses what imperfections you prefer. The Midiman Microtrack 2496
is NOT as good as one of their Delta Series sound cards. It could be an
interesting comparison, but I tend to not want either.

itchy


Kind regards

Peter Larsen

--
*******************************************
* My site is at: http://www.muyiovatki.dk *
*******************************************

I need the handheld for the field recording aspect, which I will do
occasionally.
I noticed the Microtrack has a stereo mike input, and also L and R
1/4" jacks for stereo switch with a line toggle. It looks more
appropriate for recording, definitely. I guess the other competitive
devices, price wise and size wise, would
be the compact flash recorders by fostex or tascam, which go for about
300$ and record two tracks simultaneously. But they have so many extra
features
[ie, effects, mixdown capabilities] you have to wonder about the
quality of the preamp in those, as well. There are so many of these
devices that noone has
sat down and had the time to compare them I guess.
As long as the Mictrotrack is as good as the Sony hand held DAT I think
that
is the threshold of quality I can get by with. I did notice that the
Microtrack does
not have a power supply. If it runs down on you, you cannot just pop in
new batteries.


itchy