Comments on Brad Linder's blog: Marantz PMD620 review roundup

I just ordered a PMD620 after researching it inten...

2009-03-04T22:48:00.000-05:00

I just ordered a PMD620 after researching it intensively for about a week now.

The thing that swayed my decision towards it is the quality of PMD620 sound samples available on the web.

To my ears it has a fuller, richer sound than its main competitor, the Edirol R09HR. I've also seen reports indicating that its external mic preamps are quieter than the Edirol's.

It seems to offer the best bang for the buck in its class. Mind you, it would have been nice to see a slightly larger form factor, a bigger display and the ability to adjust recording levels on the fly.

The latest firmware (as of Dec 2008) is v2.27 whic...

2008-12-29T11:22:00.000-05:00

The latest firmware (as of Dec 2008) is v2.27 which I received from Marantz with a short update guide.

There is no latency, the auto level control (ALC) works great, the data formats are all correct (as far as I can tell from use in Adobe Audition, Windows media player, Winamp, and various other wav, mp3 players and editing programs.

The noise floor on this unit is very very good and the recording quality is pristine.

I have made several recordings of just me and my Taylor guitar. The recordings were so convincing that my wife thought I was playing when I was I was simply playing back the music on my home system.

The battery life claims of 4 hours are grossly conservative. I use 2200mAhr NiMH rechargeables (that are a year old btw). I get 6 hours from these batteries. I have 2600mAhr AA's on route. I suspect that one could get as much as 7 hours of recording on a good set of NiMH rechargeables .... that should put a smile on your face.

I have recorded using both the external mic and my PA system line out with everything from the previously mentioned acoustic setting, to my entire band blaring at club levels. Everything came out sounding fantastic.

Marantz support was great and responded to my request for a firmware update in a polite and quick manner. With my update Marantz stated the following:

"Please note, we strongly recommend using Lexar and SanDisk SD and SDHC
cards with the PMD620"

I have a 4Gb SanDisk SDHC headed my way from NewEgg. We will see how it goes ;)

The ability to mount the unit on a tripod (my camera tripod) is perfect. Other recorders require an additional purchase for this.

I researched alot before making this purchase. I compared the Marantz to the Edriol 09HR, The M-Audio Microtrack II, and the Sony PCM-D50.

The Edriol had lower audio quality to my ears, and persistant quality issues with the phone jack breaking.

The M-Audio's use of a proprietary battery that must be sent back to the manufacturer to be replaced (think iPod esque) removed it from the running despite its good recording quality.

The Sony simply got disqualified because of price. If money were not of any concern, it would have won.

I paid ~$320 USD for the Marantz. In this price category, it is the best unit presently being made.

I had problems with an undocumented function which...

2008-10-11T01:48:00.000-04:00

I had problems with an undocumented function which will not allow a recorded .wav file to be played from my PC. It seems that when you update to the latest firmware, now .wav files have to be played from within the recorder first. When you do this, the recorder will flash a message that says "Restore". Now you can export the file from SD card to your PC where it will play.

I called Tech support and they only told me that they have not heard of this issue but that I must have bought inexpensive memory and it is not stable enough to record with their player. I am using Transcend memory, not exactly a low end manufacturer... Wouldn't you agree? I have seen that the problem exists with some Kingston Memory.

I found it disconcerting that the tech support says that they have not heard of this, but somehow their player is obviously programmed to make some sort of change to the .wav file to get it to play. The fact that the restore is happening means that the flashware is doing something it has been programmed to do.

I also found the following information on this problem...
http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Rec/rec.arts.movies.production.sound/2008-03/msg00862.html

It has good sound and all, easy to use, but I don't like being on the receiving end of this kind of mistake that another manufacturer is unwilling to admit to and fix...

I've read that Marantz has fixed the latency p...

2008-08-19T20:34:00.000-04:00

I've read that Marantz has fixed the latency problem, through a firmware update.

As for the pathetic sounding speaker, it's there to tell you IF you got the take, not to do critical listening ( you ever heard of Shure in-ear headphones? ).
Criticizing it for poor reference monitoring / loudness is like criticizing a Cooper Mini for not being able to haul 53ft containers the way tractor trucks can: it's there for a distinct & different purpose.

For me, it seems a trade off between the shirt-pocket weight of the Marantz, vs the *potentially* cleaner sound of the Sony.

I'm after it for on-talent sound, in video recording ( mix it in, in post ), as there's zero likelyhood of the mic being aimed at the wrong part of the room, being too far away, or being overwhelmed by bad room acoustics, if it's on the person.

I only wish SOMEONE would explicitly state ( is this secret information? ) if the mic-in on both Marantz and Sony portables had plug-in power, at what voltage, and does the mic-in happen to be stereo, so as to know if an external pre-amp was required for ideal quality, and which mic(s) to get ( lavs ) to go with it.

Thanks much for the useful & informative page, & blessings!

about the size of a pack of king sized cigarettes,...

2008-01-25T18:23:00.000-05:00

about the size of a pack of king sized cigarettes, all I expected from Marantz with a couple of drawbacks. The biggest being the really bad internal speaker quality and volume, should be described as an earphone and not a speaker, doesn't even come close to being able to hear anything legible from it at all. The main screen display could scroll the file name, the options screen does it but not the listening screen. Overall frequencey response falls a little short of expectations with the bass being boomy from the internal mics, with or without low cut enabled and the mids highs are a little flat. Definateley not designed for music recording from the internal mics.
Otherwise a fine recorder in a micro package. Not for you mp3 player types though. Fix the speaker and I'll give it a 9 of 10, right now its a 7 of 10, sorry Marantz, you needed to get input from users before you build em.
Makes a good backup for my pmd420's.