Re: Summer NAMM Show Report

On Fri, 03 Aug 2007 09:44:27 -0700, Mike Rivers <mrivers@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

On Aug 3, 12:14 pm, Edi Zubovic <edi.zubovic[rem this]@ri.t-com.hr>
wrote:

As to the Sony XLR-1, have they had
some comment worth mentioning? -- A few days ago I've recieved the
XLR-1 but haven't tried it yet.

Be sure to give us your impressions - How does the sensitivity of a
"normal" mic compare to the built-in mics? How quiet is it? And does
it sound good? At $500, I expect that it will be pretty good but you
know how suspicious some people can be about mic preamps.

I may get one to review, but I don't really much like reviewing mic
preamps other than unusual ones like the Little Labs LMNOPre, so about
all I expect to be able to say about it is whether it sounds OK, has
sufficient gain when used with the PCM-D1, if it's reasonably quiet,
and if it provides adequate power.

I supppose I could use it with my Jukebox 3, but a preamp more
expensive than the recorder is something I'm trying to avoid. At least
the PCM-D1 doesn't have that problem. <g>



-- I'll try to test and comment it soon. As to sensitivity, it will be
tough to match the built in microphones at least with those mics I'm
thinking to obtain soon... but nonetheless it should be good enough I
hope. At some -31 dB sensitivity and claimed abt. 30 kHz upper
frequency limit (no deviations mentioned, but the frequency plot do
show life at say 25 kHz and at 20 kHz the microphones seem to perform
as well as some others at 15 kHz) -- they may be hard to beat. The
most important thing for me would be that the microphones attached to
the XLR-1 remain reasonably quiet. I'll check sE on the spot and I
know that as to Rode NT5 I can be optimistic as to noise. I've seen
and heard some noise tests of Rode NT4 with inbuilt battery supply and
thereafter P48 powered. The difference has been very obvious!

-- I think that both of sE and Rode mics are somewhat less sensitive,
about -10 dB, what means either placing them closer or cranking up the
recording level, and unduly increasing the gain is something I'm
trying to avoid. With PCM-D1, I've made a number of very fine
recordings at some 2 meters + distance and eg. especially after
(shamelessly) tilting up the low end, the recording of an acoustic
guitar seemed as if it has been made with an microphone affixed to the
body! Aside of still weird microphone setup, which in fact works quite
well, the PCM-D1 fulfilled my expectations. As to the microphone
setup, Schoeps in their literature calls it "Falsch!" ("Wrong!") but I
call it Sony... many of tries in the past were Falsch but turned later
to more or less as usable at least... Neumann dummy head KU-80 vs.
KU-81 models comes to mind...
In short, the PCM-D1 is despite it's weird microphone setup, a quality
recorder and all performing artists I offered them to listen the
recording after the performance had their eyes wide open. With the
XLR-1 I hope to be able to have more freedom in recording setups,
though.

Edi Zubovic, Crikvenica, Croatia
.