[kwkarth]

Just received an Olympus LS-10 yesterday.

LS-10

Make your own 24bit/ 96kHz recordings. Excellent quality!
Not much of a headphone amp in it, 3mW/ch, but it's adequate for monitoring with high sensitivity IEM's when recording. Nice UI. Very intuitive. 2GB built in memory, with SD socket for adding more memory. Records WMA, MP3, and Lossless PCM (WAV) in 16 to 24 bit word lengths and 44.1kHz through 96kHz sample rates.

Built in Mic pre-amps seem to be very low noise and good sensitivity. Switchable peak limiter, low cut filter, and -20db mic attenuators.
Supports external mic and line in. USB 2.0 interface to compuer. Mac and windoze supported.

 

[utilisateur]

Interesting
Is there a thru line-in or maybe even a digital input?

Looks like a design fusion of the Sony PCMD1 Nagra and R09

Sounds good !? Have you put it to use yet? Hows the noise with the internal mics? Does it take SDHC cards? And how many bits does it realy use if set to 24 bit mode

 

[kwkarth]

Line in yes, but I have not used it yet.

Internal mics/preamps seem to be very quiet. No need to clean up recordings with sound soap!

Yes, sounds very good to these ears. There is slight low freq. roll off with internal mics (about 6db/octave below 70Hz) but VLF is still present in recordings, and can be compensated for in post record editing, since there is no noise from mic preamps.

Separate stereo external inputs for mic in and line in, but no digital input.

Uses SD cards, yes. Highest resolution is 24 bit word length @ 96kHz sample frequency. Even the MP3 compressed files sound very good, but the 24 bit / 96kHz uncompressed WAV files sound slightly better.

So far, I've only judged the sound by ear using my Mac, external DAC, head amp and custom modded Proline 2500s.

Build quality is very impressive to me, as is the clean user interface.

 

[Jabada]

Too much hiss with high sensitivity IEM?

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jabada /img/forum/go_quote.gif Too much hiss with high sensitivity IEM?

None so far.

 

[kwkarth]

Here are some links to sound file that others have recorded with the LS-10.

http://cachefly.oreilly.com/digitalm...and-guitar.mp3

http://cachefly.oreilly.com/digitalm...0-Charanga.mp3

The following two links are of the same guitar, one recorded in MP3 format and the latter recorded as a Wav file.
http://cachefly.oreilly.com/digitalm...guitar-mp3.mp3
http://cachefly.oreilly.com/digitalm...guitar-wav.wav

The files above were recorded my Mark Nelson in a well written review of the LS-10. Link below.
O'Reilly -- Review: Olympus LS-10 WAV/WMA/MP3 Recorder

 

[Jabada]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwkarth /img/forum/go_quote.gif None so far.

Thanks!
Now I am tempted to get one.

 

[kwkarth]

I did some testing this evening with external vs internal mics.

I have an AT822 external Stereo mic and I A/B'd between the Olympus internal and Audio Technica 822 external mics. While the gain on the AT seems to be about 5db lower, it also seems to have slightly less self noise than the Olympus internal mics. Not a lot of difference mind you, but just noticable.

The response of the internal mics is tipped up a little in the top end. It's clean, but a couple db up above 8kHz, compared to the Audio Technica.

The bass response seems a little better balanced on the Audio Technica too.

This all is not too surprising. The AT822 is a killer mic for the $$.

Overall, the internal mics should do a fine job in a live recording situation.

 

[shigzeo]

i have been looking for a mid-priced personal recorder after giving up nice md recorders. but my poor dear mic preamp is gone. got some great concert taping mics. they look and fit just like chea canal phones or earbuds that wrap above the ears from sound professionals

 

[kwkarth]

These seem to be nice quiet mic preamps;
Mic Preamps at WingfieldAudio

Sound samples of the FEL mic preamps;
The Sounds of Silence

More info about FEL preamps;
FEL Home