Reliability zoom recorders

Greg Miller · September 17th, 2016, 05:18 PM

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Greg Miller · September 21st, 2016, 02:33 PM

In general I like the Sony ICD-PXxxx line very much. I recently tried a Philips Voice Tracer DVT3100 and I must say that in some ways I like it better. Specifically, the Philips has adjustable recording gain and a pair of bargraph recording level displays. That's much better than just guessing about appropriate gain with the Sony IMHO. And the DVT3100 can record straight PCM, as well as MP3 compressed files.

I'm not sure all the DVT line has these features, although I'm pretty sure the 3xxx, 5xxx, and 7xxx all do have. Similarly, the Sony ICD-SXxxx series seems to have level meters and adjustable gain. There are certainly lots of flavors out there these days. Just amazing when I think back to the $500+ "prosumer" R-R machines when I started recording ... of course that was in the 20th century. :-|

Noa Put · September 21st, 2016, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roger Gunkel

I have a Zoom Hi which I have never had a problem with, but my voice recorder of choice is this one https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I tested it now and the build in mics are not up to the task, when you plug in a lav then it all sounds quite good but the build in mics are not the same standards as the zoom h1 mics and I need those build in mics to sound good. I have been looking at the Sony ICD-SX 2000 but it's a quite expensive recorder, I do like the fact you can monitor and control sound with your smartphone up to 10 meters via Bluetooth and it's also small in size.

Roger Shore · September 23rd, 2016, 06:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greg Miller

In general I like the Sony ICD-PXxxx line very much. I recently tried a Philips Voice Tracer DVT3100 and I must say that in some ways I like it better.....

I have to say that I have been very pleasantly surprised at how good the Sony ICD-PXxxx recorders are - especially considering the price!
I found them ideal for a little project I made for a young family friend, who wanted a cheap 'wireless' 'vox-pop' microphone... ( My project notes are here: Recording Mic )

I hadn't seen the Philips Voice Tracers -- they look to be very good - especially with the linear PCM option. Not sure they would fit into the housing of my Sony project though...

Dan Brockett · September 27th, 2016, 07:30 AM

Bought my Zoom H4N when they first came out, which was quite a few years ago. It's still going strong. Bought a Tascam DR-40. Mysteriously died at about two years. Bought another, mysteriously died about two months ago. It's funny, the Zoom looks really cheap, I thought it would be disposable, it's turned out to be a workhorse. I was on a shoot in Copenhagen about five years ago, it was on a table, standing up and someone knocked it over, the screen cracked but it has kept going.

I bought the Tascams largely because I thought they were a little better built and would last longer. Appearances can be deceiving. Zooms are good to go in my opinion, I am kind of over Tascam as both DR40s died out of warranty and when I called Tascam, they said a repair, any repair out of warranty, would be more expensive than just buying a new one. They essentially said, "We give you a year. After that, our recorders are disposable". That's not like the old Tascam back in the day when I had their products and they would break. They would actually repair DAT recorders, etc. back in the day. Now they are just a "after a year, throw it away" kind of company.

Noa Put · September 27th, 2016, 08:10 AM

its just bad luck I guess as I have the opposite experience with 3 zoom recorders dying on me and with my tascams being the workhorses. It only proves that personal experiences with these recorders don't say anything about their reliability in general.
Its actually funny you mention that your H4 got knocked over without a issue, I didn't mention it in my first post when I said I got home to find out that a one hour recording ended up as a 0kb file on the card, that was after someone had knocked my h4 over when it was standing on a minitripod maybe just 5cm above ground. :)

September 17th, 2016, 05:18 PM	#16
Greg Miller Trustee Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 1,791	Re: Reliability zoom recorders ~~~~~~~~~~

September 21st, 2016, 02:33 PM	#17
Greg Miller Trustee Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 1,791	Re: Reliability zoom recorders In general I like the Sony ICD-PXxxx line very much. I recently tried a Philips Voice Tracer DVT3100 and I must say that in some ways I like it better. Specifically, the Philips has adjustable recording gain and a pair of bargraph recording level displays. That's much better than just guessing about appropriate gain with the Sony IMHO. And the DVT3100 can record straight PCM, as well as MP3 compressed files. I'm not sure all the DVT line has these features, although I'm pretty sure the 3xxx, 5xxx, and 7xxx all do have. Similarly, the Sony ICD-SXxxx series seems to have level meters and adjustable gain. There are certainly lots of flavors out there these days. Just amazing when I think back to the $500+ "prosumer" R-R machines when I started recording ... of course that was in the 20th century. :-\|

September 27th, 2016, 07:30 AM	#20
Dan Brockett Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Los Angeles, California Posts: 2,109	Re: Reliability zoom recorders Bought my Zoom H4N when they first came out, which was quite a few years ago. It's still going strong. Bought a Tascam DR-40. Mysteriously died at about two years. Bought another, mysteriously died about two months ago. It's funny, the Zoom looks really cheap, I thought it would be disposable, it's turned out to be a workhorse. I was on a shoot in Copenhagen about five years ago, it was on a table, standing up and someone knocked it over, the screen cracked but it has kept going. I bought the Tascams largely because I thought they were a little better built and would last longer. Appearances can be deceiving. Zooms are good to go in my opinion, I am kind of over Tascam as both DR40s died out of warranty and when I called Tascam, they said a repair, any repair out of warranty, would be more expensive than just buying a new one. They essentially said, "We give you a year. After that, our recorders are disposable". That's not like the old Tascam back in the day when I had their products and they would break. They would actually repair DAT recorders, etc. back in the day. Now they are just a "after a year, throw it away" kind of company.

September 27th, 2016, 08:10 AM	#21
Noa Put Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Belgium Posts: 9,510	Re: Reliability zoom recorders its just bad luck I guess as I have the opposite experience with 3 zoom recorders dying on me and with my tascams being the workhorses. It only proves that personal experiences with these recorders don't say anything about their reliability in general. Its actually funny you mention that your H4 got knocked over without a issue, I didn't mention it in my first post when I said I got home to find out that a one hour recording ended up as a 0kb file on the card, that was after someone had knocked my h4 over when it was standing on a minitripod maybe just 5cm above ground. :)