Zoom H6 vs Juiced Link?

[Jarred Jones]

Hello everybody.

I'm looking for record some great audio with my XLR mic and I was wondering which of these two would be better?
The Zoom H6 or something like a Juicelink or Beachtek?

Thank you for reading. :)

[Rick Reineke]

The Zoom is a recorder, the others are pre-amps / mixers/ interface. Apples and oranges
Can you be more specific.. what camera, microphones, type of project, ect.?

[Colin McDonald]

Do you really need a 6 channel recorder? There are many digital audio recorders out there if you decide to go down that path, and you might be happy with a smaller or cheaper one. Also, for some work you might actually need a better one than the Zoom H6.

Knowing what it is you are recording would be very helpful as Rick has pointed out.

[Jarred Jones]

I'll be recording indoor dialogue with a Panasonic GH3.

[Colin McDonald]

Thanks, that helps (so you don't need 6 channels).

What's your XLR mic, and where will it be? (Please tell us it won't be on the camera!) :-)

[Jarred Jones]

A Sennheiser MKH 416

[Colin McDonald]

No GH3 owners chipping in so I'll give it a go.

That's an excellent mic, so far so good. Can we assume that you are using the mic on a boom for the dialogue, or alternatively that what you are filming is static enough to use a stand keeping the mic placed close enough to work as it is designed? (Again, definitely not on the camera).

Basically you have to decide if you want to record to audio on the camera (bit of a waste of a 416 some might say) or on a separate audio recorder (more hassle but more control). Either way you are going to need
phantom power for the microphone. The Zoom H6 recorder, the Juicedlink preamps, and some of the Beachtec adapters have this. Not having used a GH3 I can't say how easy it it to set and adjust audio levels on that camera but I would think it might be easier on a separate recorder. You could run a cable from the monitor output of an audio recorder into the camera for a reference track.

All other things being equal, I suppose it really depends on how clean an audio recording the GH3 is capable of making and how easy it is to work with the audio on that camera.

Much as I like mine, I'm not sure that a Zoom H6 would be the recorder of first choice in your case unless you are likely to be making use of some more of its 6 inputs.

[Marco Leavitt]

If it were me, I'd get neither and opt for a genuine quality mixer and passive XLR adapter on the camera end. You could always add the Zoom later if you still wanted.

[Fran Guidry]

I've done a bit of comparison between my H6 and the same audio recorded on the GH3. Although the difference is small, there's more self-noise in the GH3 audio. The H6 is a noticeable step up from previous Zoom recorders.

Fran