ya about time they make one of these...
worried its going to be expensive though....

My thought.. market will be flooded with compact, dual channel digital audio recorders by the end of the year.. well at least i hope so...

Please, Chaps, tell me why this is such a good item? I'm learning and need to be guided by those who really know - fed up with time wasters. So, friends, please tell me .. oh, and if poss keep it very simple.

Best regards,

Grazie

Well... I could have done with one the other night. I was capturing at a conference and they were supposed to have an XLR audio feed to the back of the hall. Instead... they had it at the front. I had to position one of my cameras right up the front tapped into their audio system. Not the place I would have chosen.

With this unit I could have plugged that unit into their audio box and positioned both of my cameras in more appropriate locations.

I don't have one of course... but I can see how it might be very useful.

Is that simple enough? Or did I just waste your time?

No, Liam, not at all. Exactly the type of "hands-on" comments AND at my level I can understand.

Thanks Guys, I'll keep a look out here in UK.

Grazie

It's small, it records at 16/48KHz, has balanced mic inputs with phantom power, it has no moving parts, it's reasonably priced, you can copy the audio file(s) into your PC very quickly, it has removeable media, it runs on batteries and hopefully it has better mic pres than your camera.
What it doesn't have (from what I can see) is a prerecord buffer like the FR-2 and unlike the FR-2 you're limited to 16bit res.
Anyone buying one please mention this post so I get my commission :)
Bob.

Thank you Bob . . you made it even more relevant. G :)

Around $500 US for the price... not that bad

Huh! 500 squids here then .. maybe more . . huh! .. . G

I've had my eye on the 670 for a long time now -- this looks even better! Thanks for the info.

- jim

Well, that's probably "suggested retail price" so if it's like anything on the market, prices will probably be a little under these 500 bucks.
Maybe not too... o.o

phantom power built in, sweet!

B&H lists 499.00, but won't have any until february.
Guess i'll have to wait.
jimmy

Well I got the MPD 660 yesterday. I had ordered it several months ago when my credit card had more room and kind of forgot about it. Anyway, it finally came. So far it looks pretty good. The sound is as clean as I expected and it is pretty well laid out. On the downside, it's a little bigger than it looked in the pictures, the built in speaker sound quite tinny and they are trying to sell me a $250 program called PMD edit.

Anyway, it records 44 or 48k in either uncompressed or mp3 format, has phantom power, and means I can do voiceovers without hauling my laptop around.

What'd it cost you, Laurence?

Just got mine to from b&h and it did great job on a v\o. Mine ended up costing me $499.00. I wish it came with a larger flash card. All in all not disappointed.

Jimmy

We got the 670 about a year ago and have just loved it. Has come in very handy on several situations! Worth every dime, in my opinion.

I paid $499 here:

http://www.proaudiosuperstore.com/marantz-pmd660.html

Overall, still pretty happy with it. I have noticed a low level high pitched electronic whine over the headphone out. I'm not sure if it's on the recording though. Does anyone know where I can get a case for the 660? Also, do you need to use high speed cards for recording uncompressed audio? What is a good high capacity yet inexpensive card for a recorder like this?

I've also noticed that the 660 will burn through a brand new set of alkaline batteries in about ten minutes, but last much longer on a good set of NiCad rechargables, kind of like a digital camera.

jay,
Is the PMD670 just a newer version of the PMD660?
Tks
Tom