I think for H2(n) you’d want the non-pro Uši, the pro version needs +48V again. But as far as I can remember, those are sort of modular, so you can get the mics, and then both XLR / +48V and 3,5mm / plug-in power cables as an accessory.
And yep, I think H4n should power the basicUchos just fine, as it has XLR inputs with phantom power.
Edit: there’s also Clippy EM272 Stereo Microphone - micbooster.com which people recommend, if you want mics that will work with your current recorder. Similar to Uši in design.
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got u. completely clear now. basicUcho 24-48V, Uši…2-10V, Uši pro…24-48V. Shoot. Supposed to look into it more, I saw that basicUcho is going for pre-order, panicked (as they sold out so quickly the last time) and placed the order. Woud be more suitable to get Uši for my Zh2… well…I learned the hard way…
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For plug-in power recorders I dont really think there’s a better price-point to performance than the discontinued Olympus LS-11. Specifically this model is really good and compared to the LS-10 has better battery life can use 32gb SD cards which are a good size and cheap as hell. The built-in mics are IMO better than anything short of the also-discontinued and crazy expensive Sony PCM-D line. I got mine from Japan on eBay for $90 shipped (just had to use Google Lens to figure out how to switch from Japanese to English menus) and I sold my much newer Zoom/Tascam units because it just sounds and works so much better, which is wild for something made and discontinued like two decades ago. IMO the next step up is the Zoom F3 and a pair of quality omni mics. The F3 and basicUcho should work really nicely together.
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That reminds me, what would you more experienced recordists get, if you needed a compact recorder with reasonably good sound + noise floor and decent battery life using just the built in mics… and then the additional possibility of hooking up a pair of more sensitive PIP or +48V mics (either will do) for specific quieter sources? I already have a tiny cheap pocketable recorder so in this case, I’d favour sound quality, battery life and ease of use over cheap price or especially small footprint - as long as it’s still sort of a handheld form factor with built-in mics.
In the end, Mixpre 6’s form factor meant I really used it as a swiss army knife with instruments and studio gear, and only took it outdoors for recording with mics once in a blue moon. So decided I’m just too lazy a recordist for that kind of setup - going to downgrade to something “handheld” (no matter small or big) that I can actually keep in my (large) backpack ready to take out and record.
Obviously I won’t be getting the same level of performance from a handheld, but I’m still thinking there must be some personal sweet spot between my H1n and the Mixpre regarding size / convenience and audio quality. Just have to figure out what it is, so any recommendations or pointers appreciated.
I was initially thinking about the Sony PCM-D100 which seems to have been the gold standard for sturdiness and low noise floor in that form factor - but as it’s discontinued, only available from Japan / China used at pretty crazy prices and I’m not prepared to take the gamble for an used unit from an unknown seller at that cost… so unless one drops on my doorstep out of thin air, I’d rather get something that’s easier to find, whether new or used. The newer, larger PCM-D10 seems like a good allround device with noisier internal mics and can still be bought new, but due to lack of reviews and experiences, I’m not sure how much better one should expect it to be than comparable Zoom or Tascam models, except for long battery life.
I was also considering the Zoom F3 with some accessories to turn it to sort of a ad hoc handheld that can be used for “point & shoot” type spot things and then converted to a more elaborate ambience recording setup with slightly different accessories and mics (proper stand, stereo bar etc.), but I’m not sure how well that would work out in the end.
I mean I sort of just said this but:
Olympus LS-10/11 - often available on eBay for $80-120, mine was $90 and came unopened in original package. Really good and quiet onboard mics. LS-11 version can use 32gb SD cards which I find to be a sizable advantage. They’re both very high quality construction.
Zoom F3 + LOM BasicUchos - more expensive but 32 bit float is really nice and this has better integration with modern computer setups
Tascam DR100mkIII and Sony PCM-D50 - poor man’s PCM-D100s
Recorder Tests - Avisoft Bioacoustics - you can check out the independently tested specs for most of the stuff on the market here. The advantage of the F3 and other 32 bit float recorders is that you dont have to mess around with levels and settings as much.
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Sorry, didn’t mean to imply I ignored your previous post - I read it through and that sort of inspired me to ask more questions 
Thanks for the additional ideas!
LS-10/11 do seem like very good, low noise recorders for the price point. Another option seems to be Sony PCM-M10 that a lot of people seem to be fond of, only available used again and has an closely spaced omni mic pair instead of cardioids. At least buying from Japanese sellers they’re both priced pretty reasonably… we do get hit with 24% VAT and customs fees on top of that price here but it’s still not too bad.
Kind of ashamed to say I’ve been reading that Avisoft recorder test page pretty vigorously for the past few days, skimmed through a lot of reviews and comparisons and listened to some examples, and have come to no conclusion yet. It often happens that I do embarrassing amounts of “market research” on and off for a month or two before buying anything, and seems to take some time once again even though I’ve been in a similar situation before. Eg.
- The DR100mkIII did jump out as something having good bang for the buck and quite low noise preamps, but available only used as well, and people didn’t seem to like it very unequivocally based on online reviews. Looking at it now, the only big drawback seems to be that the internal mics seem noticeably worse compared to eg. the D-series Sonys, but the preamps are quiet.
- The newer Tascam Portacaptures seem like a good idea with good specs, but with several reported bigger bugs / issues and clumsy touchscreen UI so unless someone is super happy with theirs I think these are out of the shortlist
- The F3 would be kind of a no-brainer for price / performance / size, except for short battery life without external battery, and I already have one personal recommendation for that as well - but I’m not sure if I’d manage to build a good instant “point & shoot” type setup out of it. Maybe a Gorillapod, a folding stereo bar or two goosenecks, and two basicUchos or similar mini omnis would be convenient enough to just keep in a backpack, take out quickly, put somewhere and press record. Or maybe something like this, although two omnis practically next to each other…: https://immersivesoundscapes.com/earsight-thumb-microphones/-p502321903
I guess I can always get something that looks good, and iterate if it doesn’t end up working for me. Just trying to minimize the amount of things I need to try before I end up with something I’m happy with… (Edit: The DR100mkIII is starting to look like a good compromise in many respects)
bphenix
2119
Katherine Latham is back on the BBC with another sound ecology related piece:
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timp
2120
I know this isn’t the answer you want but I think I would take your MixPre, find an ideal small tight protective bag for it & add a pair of Usi Pros. I’d rig the mics such that they are always connected (right angled XLRs into MixPre) & can be used as they are attached to the MixPre bag, or the cable can be unravelled to allow wider use.
I have a Sony D100 - it’s good, but even ignoring lack of 32bit float its so limited compared with a MixPre. . Its only advantage is convenience. Seems a major step backwards for some convenience, but what works for your use case is all that matters in the end.
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No, that’s a good suggestion, thanks! Thing is, I’ve already sold my first gen Mixpre-6 to a local film sound person, but one possibility I’ve been toying with a bit in my mind has been to replace it with the slightly smaller 32-bit Mixpre 3-II once I find one used, and build a more compact setup around that.
Or get the Zoom F3 for the same reason: it’s even smaller and cheaper, based on comments and reviews it sounds that’d get me 90% there, and I could get a nicer pair of small mics and some accessories for the remaining money I got from Mixpre. That’s what a fellow Lines member suggested to me elsewhere.
The D100 seems to be prohibitively expensive now that it’s discontinued, so not worth hunting down in that sense either. The Tascam DR100mk3 suggested above, however, looks like it has preamps with phantom power that are almost as quiet as the aforementioned alternatives, doesn’t cost much used / NOS, has decent battery life out of the box, and includes half-decent internal mics for those cases when you don’t want to hook up Usis / Clippys or something more involved.
So I guess the most likely options are going to be along those lines now. Will try to tone down the gear questions a bit now, as it’s mostly for helping me decide, I can just get one of the interesting options and try out if it works for me, and there’s a lot of more interesting chat going on in the thread…
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One word of warning about the Sony D100 - at this point I would highly advise against buying one, especially for the mark up prices but even if you find one used. We have two of them at my work and from one day to another they just bricked. No input signal on mic, line, or external mics, volume input knob seems to not be responding… we tried all kinds of things, factory reset, so on… nada. Sony offers no support or help aside from saying the product is discontinued, and we have been unable to find a tech to try and service them though whether the cost would even be worth it now I highly doubt it.
Since they are as good as parts/e-waste now I have been meaning to take them home and open them up, see if there is some obvious point of failure inside like something having disconnected or a cracked smd part but I am not holding my breath on finding anything. I suspect maybe a component was used in the manufacture of these that Sony was finding out was out of spec or having a more limited than expected lifetime and this led to the product being ‘discontinued’ rather than them having to service hundred if not thousands of units in the coming years as warranty.
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I’ve heard similar complaints about D-50 and D-100 before - some withstanding a crazy lot of abuse with no problems from year to year and looking like people would pass them to their grandchildren, and on the other hand, some other speciments just dying by themselves in light use. Perhaps it’s some kind of design defect, but yeah, does kind of discourage buying used devices online, especially at the current prices.
They were on the market for good 8 years or so, which is a long time for something like that, so I suppose it might be that they were discontinued just due to being an old product by electronics terms. Then again, it seems Sony has discontinued pretty much all their pro recorders now, even the “lesser” newer A10 and D10 are only available on some specific regions and stores (eg. not EU).
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bread
2124
loved the sony d50, but mine just bricked this week with no warning. replaced it with a tascam dr100mkiii
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joex
2125
This describes all my recent experiences with field recording gear. No matter how great my gear, I rarely take it out, even when I’m dragging it all over the place on my back.
For my travels this summer, I’ve deliberately downgraded my setup with each successive trip. I’ve gone from my full kit (with M/S stereo mics, EM272 pairs, a Rycote mounted Me-66, and multitrack recorder), to a H1N with Clippy EM272 pair, to finally an iPhone with Sennheiser’s AMBEO Smart Headset.
I used the iPhone/AMBEO kit everywhere, pretty much all the time. It’s a game changer for me. My main kit has been relegated to the office; my H1N is basically used as a drop-kit.
For extra fun, I’m using the AMBEO with AUM in realtime with all the terrific iOS granular and looping apps. Walking through Schiphol airport live with Unfiltered Audio’s Silo was a blast.
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My sweet spot seems to be somewhere in between those so far.
I have the Ambeos and love them - but have mostly used them simply as headphones on trips, and only rarely record with them because it’s not always that I want binaural ambience recordings, and having record mode on with them somehow makes me more self-conscious than having something that looks like a recorder visible. They’re certainly very convenient though!
Until recently I had the Mixpre with a good shoulder bag, accessories, and a little kit of mics and contact pickups - and it was used for everything BUT field recording.
Very recently bought a b-stock H1N and have recorded a lot with it already. Possibly because it’s one separate thing that’s easy to pick up, throw into backpack and use, can get physically very close to individual sources or just put somewhere to record general vicinity, and so on.
…
Completely unrelated to this discussion, but possibly relevant to the thread: interesting post about 32 bit (or generally multiple parallel preamp/ADC) recording. I didn’t actually know what the sort of more specific algorithm or idea the devices are using to combine multiple signals to one was until now: The Problem with 192/32bit Recordings
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Anfim
2127
I wish there was an ambeo-like device for Android!
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They were supposed to make a version for Android as well, but as far as I know, that never happened - probably wasn’t much of a success for iOS so they just ended up discontinuing it before that, based on the number of cheap NOS Ambeos on eBay for years.
Shiftr
2129
I use the Ambeo with my android phone. It needs the right converter cable. And there is no special app so you can’t use all the functions but you can record with it
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Heh, I was going to say I remember someone had maybe managed to use an adapter to get it working with Android. Maybe it was you somewhere here, or maybe I just read that elsewhere when I was considering buying one online 
In any case, good to know it’s apparently a class compliant USB mic / headset in core, in case you can actually just plug in an adapter and go. So won’t go unused even after my phone kicks the bucket and I get a new one.
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Intermittent high frequency noise spikes are a key problem for the Tascam Portacapture X8 (the replacement for the DR100-mk3), but they’ve released a couple firmwares to address this and other issues. I don’t know if it’s resolved. But if it is, then it would mean that the problem mentioned in that blog post isn’t a base-technological one, but rather an implementation one.
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As far as I understood from reading discussion, Tascam admitted they had some issues with ultrasonic noise that they needed a hardware fix for, eg. some of the early units are unfixable by just firmware updates… But I could never figure out whether it was separate and worse issue from spiking.
On the other hand, even the first generation SD Mixpres had ultrasonic noise / spiking issues which I guess were exactly as described, and they did fix that with a firmware update.
So I suppose it’s something where, if hardware is decent enough, the algorithm / implementation plays a big role indeed.
