Need Advice on Marantz PMD (660 - esp Oade Mods)

Posted on Aug 26, 2006 10:07 am
sunna
Member Since: Aug 26, 2006

Hello Home and Field recorders... good to meet you.

I am looking to make the jump into some more interesting field recording equipment. The PMD 660 seems to present a great next step in terms of something simple but very functional I could use for a long time and not have to worry about equipment for a while.

My question about this has to do with some of the complaints I've seen online about its stock sound, and the resulting mods. Everyone talks about Oade Bros mods.

Has anyone here used PMD 660's extensively? Even better if you can compare stock and modded models. Oade has sound clips that aren't quite revealing enough for me to make a decision.

I will be recording mainly music, primarily acoustic, but possibly some electric as well. I kinda like "lo-fi" but not doing lo-fi for its own sake, only because sometimes lo fi sounds better than hi fi for a particular project, ... I couldn't tell on the oade site but it sounded like some of their mods increased bass presence and gave it almost a produced, slicker sound that I would like to avoid. Just being more "accurate" would be fine and of course I don't want tons of hiss which would give listeners a headache, but some light imperfections can sometimes add to a recording...?

Anyway... weigh in...

Thanks in advance!


PS Previously I did all my field recording on handheld tape recorders or sony ic recorders. and, I definitely want better sound quality than that. Quite functional for capturing ideas though. I have a range of mic's I will be using with my new field recorder, many of which use phantom power, are condenser mics (example: Studio Porjects C3, C4).

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