Recording, what else is out there?

[TBman]

There are USB powered devices on the market, but then you have the potential fan noise of a computer to deal with. Also there are plenty of the Zoom like devices on the market (I have a Zoom H5).

Are there other stand alone ("self powered") devices out there that have better mic pre amps than what the Zoom has to offer? I'm just curious.

[Brent Hahn]

The newish Sound Devices recorders are nice. They have the same basic thing in Field-Recorder and Musician versions. I spent some time checking out the Field-Recorder version for a job I didn't end up getting, and it seemed really solid and the mic pres sounded good.

On the other hand, I didn't compare it sonically side by side with the Zoom. I think the H6 sounds a ton better than the H4, don't know anything about the H5.

[Chipotle]

Someone just posted about the Spire Studio, which was the first I heard of it. I have no idea how the mic preamps are, but it looks like an interesting stand-alone solution.

[Doug Young]

Yes, Sound Devices would be a most noticeable step up that I'm aware of. I had the 722T ( I think that was the model, tho they seem to have changed the line up a bit, and that one's no longer listed. The 702 looks the closest - almost $3K) that I used for a long time, and it worked great, excellent preamps and converters. Note that it does have a hard drive in it, so it's not 100% silent, tho close. I basically sold mine when the Zoom line came out, as to me, for what I needed, the Zoom was at least as good at a fraction of the price, and is totally silent. I seriously doubt you'd hear a significant difference between one of these and the Zoom for recording solo guitar. Check out the preamp shoot-out I posted a while back to get some idea of what 10-100X the price gets you in preamps in this application. If noise is the concern when using a USB interface, a far easier/cheaper solution is to move your computer to a different room. I just poked a hole in the wall, and monitor, keyboard, USB, etc, cables thru into my recording room. A closet that you can close the door on would be roughly the same.

[Brent Hahn]

The new range of Sound Devices recorders are more "prosumer," less expensive by a lot, and don't have a spinning drive in them.

[JakeStone]

Originally Posted by Chipotle

Someone just posted about the Spire Studio, which was the first I heard of it. I have no idea how the mic preamps are, but it looks like an interesting stand-alone solution.

Here's a short video with Michael Grace on Spire's preamps.