M3 Voice Recording Quality

[Baseballman]

Hey, I'm on the fence between a few different HDD DAPs, the m3, h120, and dell with fm tuner/recorder remote. All are similar in price (dell is ~30 cheaper now because on sale). As of right now, the M3 seems to be the strongest, although one apparent benefit of the h120 over the m3 is recording quality, especially with its external mic. What I'm wondering is, how well does the m3 record? I know its adjustable from 1-10 for how sensitive the mic is, but is the quality any good and would i be able to record lectures/ live stand-up acts with it? I dont really want to shell out the dough for an amped external mic. If you could help me out, that would be great. Any other pro's/con's between these players that would help me decide (try to keep it as unbiased as possible) could really help.

Also, do FM/voice recordings go in their own separate folder or can you name them and put them in with all your other files (I know the dell cant do this). Thanks!

[SeveR]

the voice recording is terrible imo. it barely picks anything up even with the microphone level on high (it only has high and low not 1-10) the line-in and radio recording seems to be pretty good but I havn't had any luck with the voice recording.

[Vlad Tepes Drac]

well i think the voice recording is good! I made recordings of a live band recently and that came out really good! And if you go to the eng.iaudio.com site then go to DOWNLOAD menu located at top of screen!

Then go under VOICE FILES (SC4) and u will get some examples of voice recordings done by eXity and some other people (there are lecture recordings in there too so check it out) !

[SeveR]

the thing i don't like is that its super quiet. you pretty much have to yell to get the level meters to move. If the mic was more sensitive it'd be good. i like being able to hear the recording amplified while recording but it's too quite to work well. Hopefully they can add in a 1-10 mic setting with at least twice the current sensitivity.

[Jetson]

The mic in the iRiver's is great when it comes to sensitivity compared to the mic in the M3. On the other side, i noticed more distortion from the internal harddisk in the iRiver than in the M3.
From a quality level, the mic is not useable for more than just voice notes.

[Baseballman]

I checked out the site, and the examples of voice/FM recordings were great. Fine quality for what i need it for. However, since it is on their site to convince buyers, i do wonder if the average voice note really comes out that well. From personal experiance, is it adequate for lecture recording?

Also, i know that it is adjustable in sensitivity from 1-10, and has a volmue meter, but if you need to record something how do you figure out which number setting to put it on? Is the volume meter the same regardless of what setting its on, or does it change for every setting to give you an idea of whether your number [1-10] it is too sensitive or not sensitive enough? Sorry for all the questions, but im very curious. thanks.

[Koolshen]

I made a recording once at university during a lecture and I have to tell, the result was really not bad. I'm very happy with the voice recording feature. Alright, you don't have the possibility to plug in an external mic but I don't know any purpose for this additional external mic, except a live concert perhaps. But I doubt the quality would reaxh hi-fi standards anyway with either internal or external mic.

[Vlad Tepes Drac]

I checked out the site, and the examples of voice/FM recordings were great. Fine quality for what i need it for. However, since it is on their site to convince buyers, i do wonder if the average voice note really comes out that well. From personal experiance, is it adequate for lecture recording?


well those recordings were submitted by a regular iAudio user who was requested to do so on, say, the JetAudio forums! So you can be assured that its not just there to impress users.

I think the mic is really good tho, even during the live concert that i recorded there are parts where i heard the people talking who were sitting at least like 5-6 metres from me.

[Baseballman]

thanks a lot for the replies. now all thats left is my last question (for now..)

[repost]
i know that it is adjustable in sensitivity from 1-10, and has a volmue meter, but if you need to record something how do you figure out which number setting to put it on? Is the volume meter the same regardless of what setting its on, or does it change for every setting to give you an idea of whether your number [1-10] it is too sensitive or not sensitive enough? Sorry for all the questions, but im very curious. thanks.

[SeveR]

read above. the mic sensitivity is not adjustable from 1-10 it only has low and high. You pretty much will always need it on high since low doesnt capture much. the volume meter changes with the 2 different settings if i'm not mistaken.

[Baseballman]

oh sorry, i must have skipped over that. I thought i read somewhere that something related to the mic was adjustable from 1-10, i guess not.

if i remember correctly, it was in a topoc where you (seveR) said something like "if it was on 1 you would only hear a train running over it" or something like that. i guess not, so nvm.