The 512MB cards (Lexar) seem to work ok, but gives you only 1.5 hours of digital recording. I’ve had it. I’m basically out $1,500. Thanks Marantz!

total newbie here btw

I would like resume this topic as i’m about to buy a solid state recorder, and here i am in the middle of a tough decision: is the marantz pmd660 still a good choiche?

It’s been like 3 years since it’s release, and i’m afraid Marantz or another company will release a new, substancially better, SSRecorder with XLR mics usage in a not too distant future.

Would you recommend me this purchase even today?

I have read about the noise issues a little bit, but I do not recall the best source that I ran across. I googled it, so you might do the same. The conclusion was that dynamic mics will no be satisfactory while condenders will be fine unless you record at low volume. You might take a look at this forum:

http://www.oade.com/Tapers_Section/Forum/dcboard.php

People here are knowledgeable. Oade already has a fix for noisy preamps for the PMD670, and will see if anything can be done with the PMD660 “in April.”

My personal workhorse is the Sonifex Courier. It is an excellent tool, but it is too big and I need smaller, cheaper and more convenient batteries with long battery life, like AAs.

I will also try laptop recording using Digigram’s PCMCIA card and a Fujitsu P7010 laptop, but that is also too bulky and cumbersome.

I suspect there is a market for devices like the PMD660, and I agree that the device is not worth much more than 300-400. The no moving parts aspect of it is very attractive. I think I will hold off for now, at least until the noise issue is better investigated.

BTW, I do have one complaint with the PMD660, shared with others with whom I’ve communicated: The mic preamps seem particularly noisy, and I don’t know why. I also have a direct-to-CD recorder by Marantz (a CDR300) and its preamps are much better. As the PMD660′s manual suggests, I recommend only using a high-output mic like a condenser. A low-output dynamic mic may not give you a good enough s/n ratio. Although I still like th PMD660, it’s not nearly as good a value as the CDR300. The latter costs a few hundred dollars more, but it’s a much more substantial unit. While the PMD660 is “competitively” priced, I think the ultimate value of such devices is closer to $300 than to the $499 I paid for it. Particularly when I also had to shell out $300 for a 4GB CF card. That’s an $800 solution. Sure makes my Sony HD minidisc recorders look and sound real good. If the MDs had a USB or FireWire interface, I’d buy one of them before I’d by the PMD660. The Sony MD has better s/n, a much better ALC/AGC circuit, and at a much lower cost when ou include reusable media.

Have you actually verified that the 660 actually records to the entire 4Gb of the 4Gb card, and not just the first 2Gb? I would really prefer to pick up a 4Gb CF card with this recorder, but I have not spotted a positive confirmation of this little detail.
You might or might not know there is also a wired remote available for this recorder. It’s about $80 and has a couple of nifty options.

Alex