It may not be terribly useful to have a comparison of just 3 recorders, but that's what I've got. So once again, this is offered with the idea that it might help to illustrate the sorts of tradeoff that exist between various classes of recorders, even if it's not directly useful. This test is specifically about recorders with XLR inputs.

XLR Recorders


Top view of the test rig, with the F6, DR-100, and DR-701 (below frame) all recording.

The aim of this test was to try out three different recorders with balanced (XLR) inputs, all recording from exactly the same mic setup. This means, of course, that the recordings were done sequentially, so be aware that the ambience may have changed subtly between recordings. I did my best to ensure that the wind was the same (in fact there was basically none), but you never know.

Three different recorders were tested, all recording from the same ORTF setup of two Sennheiser MKH8040s. Each recording was boosted in post to -24LUFS. The recorders, mics, and the amount of boost applied are shown here:

Recorder Mic Boost
Zoom F6 Sennheiser MKH8040 +9.28 dB
DR-701 Sennheiser MKH8040 +28.91 dB
DR-100 Sennheiser MKH8040 +18.51 dB

Here are 1-minute excerpts from the recordings.

Zoom F6
The Zoom F6, recording two Sennheiser MKH8040s in an ORTF pair.

Tascam DR-701
The Tascam DR-701, recording two Sennheiser MKH8040s in an ORTF pair.

Tascam DR-100 MKIII
The Tascam DR-100 MKIII, recording two Sennheiser MKH8040s in an ORTF pair.