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Noise analysis of MZ-RH1

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Ferenc

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Hello!

I made some tentative noise analysis of my brand new MZ-RH1. I recorded samples of silence in different settings of the recorder then analysed their Fourier spectra.

Experimental details

The unit was powered by the battery. The recorded samples were typically 25-30 s long. It was ascertained using a wav editor that no transients, sections of silence, contact noise etc. were present in the samples. I made the tests with open circuit inputs, that is, connecting nothing. I know that this is not the correct way of measurement, but this is the most easy to accomplish, anybody can do it thus the results can serve as a basis of comparison between different units. When testing the mic input, I connected a dummy plug into the mic input to tell the unit to use the mic input. Tests were made with manual level setting in minimum and maximum level settings. Both low and high sensitivity settings of the mic input were studied. Of course, PCM recording mode was applied. Transfer to PC was done with SonicStage 3.4. I plotted the spectra with RightMark Audio Analyser, using default settings for the Fourier analysis.

Results

Line input, minimum level:

IPB Image

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Line input, maximum level:

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Mic input, low sensitivity, minimum level:

IPB Image

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Mic input, low sensitivity, maximum level:

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Mic input, high sensitivity, minimum level:

IPB Image

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Mic input, high sensitivity, maximum level:

IPB Image

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I think that the noise performance is quite good, however I am a little bit disappointed with the low-frequency increase of the noise.

Any comments are welcome!

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I think that the noise performance is quite good, however I am a little bit disappointed with the low-frequency increase of the noise.

Any comments are welcome!

out of interest can you pick up the sound through headphones?

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Thanks for the analysis. The results look really good. Better than most sound cards and for the mic input better than even some CF card recorders, like the Marantz 670.

With regard to the 670, my experience is that my RH1 (and my NH1 for that matter) are much quieter with good dynamic and condenser microphones than the Marantz, even though the Marantz has XLR inputs.

A rep from Marantz visited my work recently and one of my colleagues questioned him about the relatively noisy preamps on teh 670. He acknowledged that they are a bit noisy, saying that the company believed it was good enough for the target market of podcasters, speech recording, radio journalism, etc.

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  • 2 months later...

Hello

Thank you for these curves of the intrinsic noise of the RH1.

This basic measurements helps me to better understand other sources

of noise ...

With you, it is interesting to understand the effect of rec_level

and mic_sensivity on the spectrum of the noise. -70 dB is a very

high noise, that I noticed when recording someone playing its instrument

at very low level.

May I suggest you other types of measurements ?

Sony is repairing, actually, my RH1 : a problem of the jog

button ("forward" button). The problem appeared since the

first day.

For example, I noticed that there is some additional noise when

the remote is plugged. I used the same microphone on the RH1,

as well on my old Mzr-900 for the comparison ...

In general, I don't have noise problems with the Mzr900 recorder.

With the remote, the noise is permanent.

I noticed another big source of noise : the OLED display.

But It can be "off" automaticaly.

It can be interesting to measure the noise at the output.

But it is necessary to have a low noise measurement system

(better than recorder itself !).

What if ... you plug the output into the mic_input !!!

About the noise, it is true that I didn't have the opportunity

to use the ferrite accessory. It seems that these ferrites must

be used on each cable (micro, remote, headphone, ...).

Could you check noise, with and whitout these ferrites !

Thank you again for your interesting curves.

Regards

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