Marantz PMD-660
Manufactured by Marantz, the Marantz PMD-660 is a portable, solid-state, compact flash audio field recorder. It has 2 XLR (balanced) inputs, 2 line-in inputs, 2 internal microphones and can record in raw WAV or MP3 formats. It is powered with four (non-rechargeable) AA-sized batteries which offers 3.5 to 4 hours of uninterrupted recording.
Uses
As a field recorder, the PMD-660 is designed to be used outside of a controlled studio environment. Uses are electronic news gathering (ENG), podcasting, live music recording.
Problems
A well-known problem found in the PMD-660 - and one which became somewhat of a public relations problem for Marantz - was that of the sub-standard microphone pre-amps found in the model.
This problem was especially found upon use of many popular standard industry models of Dynamic Microphones, whereupon electronic noise (sometimes referred to as 'hiss') was generated by the pre-amps, to a level that was unacceptable to many users. Marantz never corrected the problem throughout the lifetime of the model.
Representatives for Marantz (interviewed at tramsom.org and other websites) had earlier been quoted as stating that the company (Marantz) felt the level of hiss was acceptable for an entry-level machine. By "entry-level machine" the company was referring to the fact that the unit was somewhat lower-priced than similar competing products.
However claiming that the PMD-660 was an "entry-level machine" (now a marketing cliché), in relation to the unit's poor performance, was later proven to be an unacceptable reason. When the new model, the PMD-661, was released three years later (in February 2009), Marantz had corrected several major issues associated with the PMD-660. There quickly became an issue where many people noted that the new model was being sold for almost the same price as the original PMD-660 had been, three years before. This created a situation where many users asked why Marantz had "skimped" on better quality components for the earlier model.
The improvements in the PMD-661 included superior mic pre-amps, a more robust headphone socket and casing of a more sturdy nature.
The problem can be avoided by using a 3rd party mic pre-amp, and routing the input signal into the line-inputs. To improve the native performance of the PMD-660, some vendors created modified versions of the recorders that addressed the pre-amp problem. Other users reported that a -10 to -15dB pad between the microphone and XLR input reduced hiss. Still other users reported more success using very sensitive Condenser Microphones, such as the Shure KSM109, although such microphones would be considered too sensitive for applications such as news gathering/close voice-recording, something the Marantz units are manufactured for.
