That's a great price on the DR-680. I have one and am very happy with it. Highly usable for production work. There's even a Portabrace case that fits it perfectly.

I think if you use it on location, I would leave it stock. There is always a chance that a mod, no matter how well done, will have unintended consequences, like you might pick up some RF. Or just post on the Gearslutz page and see if anyone has had any issues on location just to get a little perspective. Could be all the modders are happy campers no matter what, but worth asking.

If you are looking to use it as an audiophile recorder, with high end mics, chances are you have already a high end preamp like the Grace, which you can slave the Tascam to and get the steady clock and high end main pair on tracks one and two. If you are using lower grade mics, there is no point in mods: whatever is in your mics will be way worse than the modded parts in the recorder.

However, Busman is highly regarded in the modding community. Mine is stock. Busman claims 8dB noise reduction. My Tascam is quiet enough for location work.

I don't really have a bone to pick with the stock pres. They are clean and clear, with a hint of sparkle and no mud. However, if I did have a quibble, it is that the very slight color they impart, is on the clean and clear side, as opposed to the ever so slightly warm and yet still transparent side. And high speed op amps in a mod might do just that. The stock sound does not sound op ampy, however. Just a bit clearish.

Cheap preamps: Onyx * channel, $300 on eBay * channels of Onyx pres. Oink. "Class A" (I love class A) RME Octamic II Digital Preamps (great for everything) RME Octamic XTC (a pun on the Ecstasy line of pres) NB The new RME has remote control. Handy. High end: Grace Audio 2 or 8 channel

If you live in the Bay Area you can borrow one of my super duper high end preamps and waste a whole week seeing if you can hear the difference. I have done it many times and I can hear a small difference, and yet I leave the preamps at home because the weigh too much. So a mod has the advantage of not changing the weight of the gear bag.

So for $300 on the busman mod, that is pretty cheap on the scale of things. Life is an adventure; just have fun.

I see they are going for about $575-- I paid much more for mine when it first came out. That's a very good deal.

@DrDave

Thank you for your suggestion on the DR-680. The Busman Audio Mod does make a difference in the audio quality. I can definitely tell the difference and it does sound better. This a lot better then the H4n in regard to the preamps. I will still keep the H4n because it is small and compact. I will use the Tascam for quieter types of environments (indoors) and use the H4n for outdoor shoots.

I think for outdoor types of shots the H4n will be suffice because the ambient noise will probably drown out most of the preamp noise. I will test it this weekend to see if I notice the difference outdoors between the DR-680 and the H4N. If you would like to hear the difference with the Busman Audio Mod, I can record my voice and upload it via drop box. Let me know... Anyway thanks for all your advice.

Best Regards

@DrDave

Sure thing... Do you have any suggestions in terms of what I should play through thru the speakers to help with the blind A/B test? I have Mozart, Beethoven, Luciano Pavarotti and many other genres available. In regard to the microphones I have a Blue Spark, Sennheiser ME66, or CAD-E70 available at the moment for this recording. Which microphone would you prefer?

I have another question for you. The Tascam DR-680 records WAV files and also BWF files, from what I read the only difference is the amount of metadata that can be attached to the file. Is that correct?

Best Regards

Great thread guys. Thanks. I just missed grabbing one of these on Amazon for $399. Kind of bummed.

I'm kind of surprised that these are selling so cheap. Did a new recorder came out that's pushing down the price? To me, the DR-680 is still the best bang for the buck around. I'd only bother moving up to a Sound Devices recorder.

Yes, you're probably right. On my bigger paying gigs I typically hire someone with a SD and full kit. (Just like we're often shooting an Alexa or similar camera.) But for the projects where I have spent my own limited funds to put together a best-bang-for-my-buck system, the DR-680 and GH2 with FD lenses gives me a look and sound far beyond what I really paid for. Not quite perfect but a ridiculously good value.

@DrDave

Well, in regard to the Busman Audio Mod it turns out that one of my CAD-E70's was defective :( I never noticed it before until this test because the Zoom H4N that I was using actually has noisy preamps. One of the microphones was super clean and the other microphone was a lot noisier. I can still tell the difference between the Busman XLR jacks and the non Busman jacks but it is not as noticeable as I thought. Nevertheless I will conduct the test tomorrow and post the results.

Luckily I have the Tascam DR680 because with the Zoom H4n I would have never noticed that one of the microphones was defective due to the noisy preamps. So I am actually happy about that :) Hopefully my replacement CAD-E70 is just as clean as the one that I kept.

I forgot to mention but I had one CAD-E70 plugged into input #1 and the other CAD-E70 plugged into input #3. The first 2 inputs have the Busman Audio Mod, the rest of the inputs are normal.

Best Regards :)

Thanks! I will have a listen, thanks for all your work.

@luxis

Just get one on ebay or amazon then :-) If you are a pro you could even return VAT from customs, or just ask seller for low declaration.

@Vitaliy_Kiselev @Azo Thanks will check the evilbay ;) Oh and I use Pro Tools so I guess I will be cool for the customs! ;) Azo thanks for your testing, will give it a listen tomorrow with morning fresh ears.

On a side note considering the 6 tracks, how would this compare to the zoom h6(plus the extra 2xlr) or are we in a different "class" regarding the noise floor.What do you think? The h6 is definitely smaller though.