The Archos preamp mic is only $50, which ultimately decided the purchase for me. It plugs into the ‘line in’, so it would probably work well in other devices. I recorded our latest session, the sound quality was great. Loud and clear, I am able to pick out individual instruments. I didn’t even worry about mic placement, left it on my lap, so I was pleasantly surprised. It records directly to MP3 and transfers music easily to my computer.
Plus, I bought a cassette adapter so I can listen in the car. Now experiencing ITM overload!
-Patrick -
I’m no sound expert nor do I work for either company.
I went to the website, but need a little more info on this ripflash. 1) Does “near-CD quality” mean as good as a minidisc or what? 2) The ad mentions Windows. Does this mean that I cannot use the device by itself to record and play back? 3) Can I edit out things and re-use the space, like on a minidisc?
I can’t really compare the Archos to another other mic, except the RipFlash internal which is useful only for dictation. It was the cheapest I found.
Other stuff: The RipFlash records straight to MP3 format, and then you can play it right back through either the internal speaker (junk) or plug in something else like headphones. You can delete tracks right on the player w/o any need for a PC.
The only problem thus far seems to be usage related. In between recordings, for some reason the device keeps powering down, forcing me to restart (which takes like ~8 seconds). This is annoying, but possibly I am doing something wrong.
From what i see, it looks like a nice microphone, but it doesn’t seem to have a preamp. The Archos microphone is nice because it outputs at line level (at least that’s what we think). So it works with devices that have a line in but not microphone in.
It would be nice to compare the pros and cons of this product to something like the sonyMd recorder.
Pro Ripflash, price, looks like it does not need minidisc…
things like that.
If I am correct that there is no need for minidisc… can you still erase what you record to free up more space.
How well does this product last as compared to MDplayers?
Ah the newer technology… Jeepers! I just broke down and purchased the MD recorder. And now this??? Sound and recording Equipment collecting can get just as bad as Whoa!!!
Minidisc technology is much more mature and better, but the most important difference, IMHO, is that Sony has intentionally crippled it (minidisc) by not allowing digital transfer of the recorded material back to a PC (where you could use it to make CDs, for example). The MP3/WAV recorders don’t have this problem.
My first records were 78s and my first recording device was a wire recorder. It was really terrible. The wire broke all the time. Anyway, I don’t understand much about all this new stuff. I’m just sort of bumping this to see if someone will answer Elliot’s and Laura’s questions.
K.. this could be a really stupid question. The optical line-in on the MD recorder. Now, I could hook that in there? Would it then be recording digital or would it be still recording analog?
No, the optical in needs to be connected to an optical output, such as some of the more expensive CD players have. The microphone is an analog source; the sound is converted to digital by the electronics inside the recorder; this is called an A/D (analog/digital) converter. The better A/Ds operate at 24 bits.