Just got delivery of my Tascam DR100 mkII yesterday. Played with it a little. Need to get to know it very soon as I will be using it on 2 shoots latter in the week along with a rented Sound Devices 744T. Will report back after the week end. So far the only down side is it eats up AA batteries with phantom power on (Duracel alkaline). About 10 min of recording time on just the AAs. Not an official test though. Hadn't charged the rechargeable so don't know about that one yet.

I have the old DR100, does the Mark II record a hotter signal? I've always got my level dials way high for dialog, presumably this is because of DR100 music roots.

Review comparing Zoom H4n with DR-100 mk2: http://www.pauljoy.com/gear/camera-accessories/tascam-dr-100mkii-vs-zoom-h4n-review/ Reviewer tested with Sennheisser MKH416 shotgun mic, and I'm a little suprised that he didn't comment on differences in pre-amps, but I've asked and hopefully he will respond on the issue.

I've concidered the DR-100 mkII a lot, but start to think the Olympus LS-100 is a better choice for me. It's a little more expensive, but: - from what I understand it might have an edge on the preamps/noise levels, but I'm really on thin ice trying to compare results from eg. http://www.avisoft.com/recordertests.htm - LS-100 battery capacity is stated to 12,5 hours (according to Olympus. And I expect that to drop markebly when using phantom power, which I need). The DR-100 mkII using built in mic will record 5 hours with Li-Ion battery + 4 hours AA NiMh batteries (accordring to Tascam). I guess it's a close call, but I actually prefer buying an extra Olympus battery, and forget about the battery fuss on set.

I haven't found many reviews on the LS-100 yet, only a german preview: http://www.audiotranskription.de/olympus-ls-100 Lastly, ofcourse the Roland R-26 is still a good candidate. I like the ergonomics, but I find it a little too big.

You can look at DR-100 MK II review make by Ken, it has various measurements

Like all these little portable audio recorders, performance is only at a 15- or 16-bit level even if set to "24 bits." Even though 24 bits wiggle, the bottom 8 bits are just noise; "24 bit" is a sales feature and not related to actual quality. There is no measurable or audible improvement in the 24-bit mode

http://kenrockwell.com/audio/tascam/dr-100mkii.htm

The review mentioned by evero few posts above claims that
...the DR-100 mkII drifted out of sync with recordings on my cameras slightly on very long shots. With both recorders running side by side with my Sony EX1 for an hour the audio from the H4n would sync up correctly whereas the audio from the Dr-100 was 4 frames too long towards the end.

Can anyone of DR-100 MKII owners confirm that?

I've got the ZoomH4n.

What is this doing in Tascam topic?

I recently purchased a Tascam Dr-100 Mkii to replace my Zoom H4 (original, not the H4N). The problem is, it seems I have to turn the mic gain on high for the XLR inputs otherwise I can't hear anything. The resulting recordings have a very audible hiss in the background. Is this normal? Am I doing this wrong? Do I have a defective unit?

At this point, it sounds to me like the Zoom H4 has noticeably better sound. That's because on the Zoom, I only have to set the mic gain on low to get sound levels.

I did a mic comparison test with a Seinheisser k6 ran via xlr straight into the recorders. I'm a sound novice so it's not the most controlled setup. I just recorded sample wav files at 48Khz 16-bit and tried to keep audio around -15 db:

http://snd.sc/YfeRok

Am I crazy or is there way more hiss in the Tascam file? I had the Zoom at Low Mic Gain but levels were cranked to the max (127). The Tascam was on high mic gain but the levels were only at 3.

@brianluce yes on the Dr-100 it is. On the Zoom, it's set to Low. If I don't have the Dr-100 on high, I can barely hear anything.

@Vitaliy_Kiselev no phantom isn't on. The seinnheisser's running off a AA battery.

currently playing with a marantz 620 mkii -- no 48v phantom power or XLR but here's a few things that are hot:

1) Onboard stereo mics are just beautiful. So Rich. 2) Does 5v phantom to a pin mic, so for crucial interviews, you can wire it up and get lectrosonics+ sound for 1/10 of the price (its about the size of a deck of cards) 3) If you got a mix-pre D (which I highly recommend) then you can just use this as a recorder -- no need for xlr in this case

Gonna try it with the senny mke 600 tomorrow.... doing solo shoot in the jungle in Feb and I've gotta strip back as much as I can so hoping it'll be a good combo.

BTW, I'd strongly recommend against the DR-40 -- I had it, and the headphone jack stopped working mid-interview on me (with a fairly senior person in the US army). Most embarrassing moment of my life as I tried to fix it, realized it was bust, and then forged ahead, hoping that it was in fact recording even though I could hear no audio.

Hence trying the marantz. Know a lot of radio reporters in US and Canada who use it so curious. 661 mkii also looks pretty shit hot.

Camera equipment you will have to buy every couple of years, but unless you abuse it, sound equipment you will not so learn from my mistake and buy the best thing you can afford. My DR-40 was $200 down the drain....Maybe there is something better out there but in my experience you can't get clean phantom power unless you have a mixer.

and I'm wondering if the preamps worth investing in a 500$ shotgun mic, for picking up outdoor sounds for sampling (birds, cars, animals, nature).

It all depends on specific mike. Best is to use good and hot mike with DR100. DR100 preamps quickly degrade with gain increase.

You can record while passing the signal through.

Any two devices with independent clocks and no time code are subject to drift.

In what way is the DR-60D not portable?

Fran