“As far as audio performance is concerned, let’s start at the microphone preamps, first, with the internal 4-microphone array. Now that the SD card slot is at the far end of the recorder from the mikes, the low-level whine of the H4 is gone, and the preamps are dead quiet; I can hardly wait to get to the island and set it on the rock at night to pick up distant loons. In combination with the built-in electret capsules this recording array is easily the quietest electret system I’ve heard yet, and matches my Shure VP-88 stereo condenser mike in this regard…”
“The TASCAM HDP2 represents the future of location recording in as cogent and well-thought out a way as I have seen. It’s simple, elegant, and affordable, but also versatile. The main selling point is the ability to record in stereo from 44.1 to 192 kHz sampling rates at 16 or 24 bits using line or microphone inputs onto solid state media: flash cards or microdrives. These capabilities bring to it a whole new set of possibilities and operational options…”
“This “handy” little unit does so many things that any review will have to be selective, and I will concentrate on its stereo portable uses, as well as its non-portable ones, leaving the admittedly limited multichannel capabilities for a followup, or perhaps another reviewer. My interest in it, which made me purchase one, is the portable recording capability, especially in high resolution digital…”
“The real jewel of the system is the remote, or as Sonos calls it, the Controller. Ipod owners will be immediately comfortable with the Controller, the 3.5 inch full color screen and scroll wheel menu system making it feel very much like a large Ipod turned on its side.”
“Like the Creative Soundblaster Wireless Music system the SoundBridge is a digital link between your audio system and your computer, designed to stream audio files over a home network. Unlike the Soundblaster the SoundBridge can do this wirelessly or via Ethernet connection and features a large display right on its face instead of on the remote…”
“This is the kind of product you’re likely to start hearing more and more about in the coming years as computers make greater inroads into home audio. If it hadn’t been clear already, the success of Apple’s Ipod and Itunes player/music store have driven home an unmistakable trend: Commercial music is not going to be bound to a physical carrier forever, and there is already a large and growing group of people listening to their music as files on computers and portables instead of on little silver discs…”
“My last column wasn’t particularly “pro MP3.” In case you missed it, I was voicing concerns about the limited sound quality of digital music on the internet, as compressed digital file based music is poised to be the next major audio format. However, what doesn’t sound quite good enough for the home system can be plenty decent in the car, as I’ve discovered first hand…”
“Like most of the first wave of MP3 players to hit the market, the RCA Lyra is a very compact portable device, smaller than most cell phones, aimed at dethroning the discman style CD player from portable supremacy. Whereas some portables, like Creative Labs’ Nomad, use computer style hard drives for file storage, the Lyra falls into the smaller, less expensive category of players using small, removable chip based memory cards…”
“While a myriad of MP3 players have been unleashed on the market in the past year, the Audio ReQuest ARQ-1 distinguishes itself as the only one designed exclusively as a home audio component. This could mark the genesis of a significant new product category, and an important test of whether consumers are ready to embrace MP3s in a domestic environment…”
