I’ve been looking for a decent mobile podcasting rig for quite a while now. My first attempt with a Samsung YEPP mobile MP3 player was a disappointment. The YEPP was designed to handle line-level input instead of the mic-level input that microphones supply. I would have needed a pre-amp or portable mixer to make it work and it seemed like too much hassle. With NECC approaching I started looking around again, hoping to find a better solution. I quickly settled on three options: iRiver H10, Sony MZ-RH910 Hi-MD minidisc player, and the Marantz PMD660. As usual there were plenty of pluses and minuses to consider for all three.

The Sony is the cheapest at about $199 and very reliable, but minidisc technology is basically a dead end at this point. The biggest downside is that Sony has crippled the minidisc platform to prevent easy digital copying between the recorder and a computer. In other words, to transfer the file to my Mac laptop I would have to copy it in real time to the line-in on my laptop. A one-hour recording would take one hour to transfer. The iRiver portable MP3 player (about $299) has earned rave reviews as a mobile recording platform, but I wasn’t convinced that it would offer the kind of recording features I’d like for the other uses I have in mind beyond mobile podcasting. In the end I settled on the Marantz solid-state recorder. It’s the most expensive option at about $499, but it has everything I need to make professional-quality recording in the field or in a more structured setting. It has dual XLR input, records to MP3 on the fly as well as uncompressed WAV, and stores everything on a compact flash card which makes transferring the audio to my laptop a snap. The list of options is too long to print here, but you won’t have trouble finding a lot more information about it online. The gentleman I bought it from just completed a sale of 50 PMD660s to Minnesota Public Radio. He told me that they are moving away from tape completely and switching to all solid-state recording.

The Marantz isn’t tiny, but it’s small enough to be easily portable. I borrowed two Sony ECM44B condenser mics from our high school TV studio which should allow me to capture an interview like a pro. (At least I’ll look like a pro.)