I purchased LS-14 from Amazon, and I must say I am disappointed by Olympus and will be sending this back. Let me explain...The recordings the LS-14 will make, will probably be "good" to "great" for most people. Keep in mind though, this will most likely be the same people who couldn't tell the difference between what they hear in a 128kb mp3 file and a 48bit 96khz WAV file. I'm not an audiophile type of person, but I do pay attention and notice the small details of sounds around me when I am recording.
I also own an Olympus LS-11 and a Sony PCM M10. I was looking for a new recorder with the same quality in it's recordings, but that can capture the full range of 20khz to 20hz (the frequencies sound range which the human ear is able to hear). The LS-11 is only able to record 20khz to 60hz (and the LS-10 can only do 20khz to 120hz), and many people have referred to the LS-11\LS-10 as having the "bass roll-off" in recordings. Still the LS-11 has been considered as one of the few handheld recorders for it's time that creates very realistic recordings for what it captures even surpassing the Sony PCM M10. The LS-11 has an aluminum body and is a solid built device in your hand. Besides the "bass roll-off" issue, when recording very low sounds with the mic sensitivity set to high, you do hear a high "hiss" sound. This is where the LS-14 was suppose to come in...
According to Olympus, here is what they have to say about the LS-14:
"Complimenting the new high-quality stereo microphones is a new amplifier circuitry. The audio and system circuitry are separated on the Olympus LS-12 and LS-14 to minimize sound degradation and keep the signal true."
and they also said the following:
"A hallmark of the Olympus LS series has always been superior sound quality, and the LS-12 and LS-14 take that reputation to a new level. The LS-12 features two new internal 90-degree directional stereo condenser microphones with a frequency response of 60Hz to 20 kHz, allowing the user to capture lower-bass frequencies. The LS-14 compliments those directional stereo condenser microphones with a third omnidirectional center "TRESMIC," increasing the frequency response range to 20Hz 20 kHz"
With that said I took the gamble and bought the LS-14 believing I would get the full range of 20hz to 20khz, and less "hiss" in my low sound recordings, but that isn't what happened.
When comparing recordings from my LS-11 and the LS-14 with the mic sensitivity set to high on both devices, I actually hear more "hiss" in my recordings on the LS-14. This IMO is a big step backwards for the recorder and not acceptable. The LS-14 will capture low frequencies, but the lower frequencies seem almost to loud and unreal. There is no way on the recorder to adjust the gain level of the center "tresmic" mic. This causes your recordings to almost have too much of an emphases on the lower frequencies. Of course you can turn off the center mic, or set a limiter, but than what's the point of the LS-14 over the LS-12 if that has to be done all the time or in my case, why upgrade from the LS-11 to begin with?
LS-14 also feels slightly better than a cheap toy in your hand. The entire thing is plastic. It's fatter and very "blocky" in design then the LS-11 and the LS-07 which the LS-14 was suppose to replace (which the LS-07 replaced the LS-11). The LS-14 doesn't come with any windscreens for the mics and makes it absolutely useless to use outside if there is any kind of breeze. Of course you can buy an accessory from Olympus for this but at least with the LS-11 when it was being sold, Olympus included the small spongy covers for the mics of that recorder. I would of rather Olympus did the same thing here than provide the cheap little carrying case they give you with this recorder.
Overall, I was not impressed with the LS-14. The very key features that drew me to buy the product were not as advertised and I found the LS-14 to be an inferior product to the now defunct LS-11 which Olympus no longer sells. It's apparent in my opinion that the LS-14 was not designed by the same engineering team that designed the LS-11 and that Olympus cut many corners to make a cheaper product with less bang then the LS-11 came originally out of the box. I've considered buying the LS-100 recorder, but don't know now and am wondering if all of their current recorders will reflect the same half-backed end result as the LS-14.
**Update 01/06/13**
I need to also point out a few things. I was very critical in my review of the LS-14, because of the amazing job Olympus did with prior recorders like the LS-11 and LS-10, (which are still being sought after today by audiophile types of people for a small handheld recorder to use to capture realistic sounds). The LS-14 is still a very good recorder. the "hiss" sound will most likely never appear in most recordings people make, and if it does, you really have to go looking for that high pitched sound with decent monitoring speakers or decent headphones and if you aren't looking to record VERY quite ambient sounds with the mic sensitivity set to high and mic gain all the way you will probably never hear the problem.
**Update 01/25/2013**
I created a video for Youtube comparing the sound quality between the LS-14 and the LS-11, which I've also included here on Amazon.
The noise floor is drastically reduced when the central mic is disabled and the central mic makes the stereo image sound boxy.
One thing you should also know is that the LS-14 operates in AGC mode when used as a USB mic. So, while it's operating as a USB mic, there is no way to manually adjust recording levels.
I would have rated this recorder as a five star item, but I took off one star due to the lousy central mic and the fact that you can't manually set recording levels while it's being used as a USB mic.
Update 01/05/2013
Now that i've had more time to play with this recorder, i've learned some more about it. First, the central microphone truly, truly sucks. The noise-floor is insanely high and the bass frequencies are too overpowering. I just keep the central microphone turned off because of how much hiss it adds. I did not get a defective item, because a few of my friends purchased this recorder and the central microphone is just as bad. The central microphone is awful in every way that a mic can be awful, high noise-floor, poor dynamic range, etc. In my opinion, there's only one reason to buy an LS-14 over an LS-12, voice guidance. That's another thing the LS-14 has that the LS-12 doesn't.
If you want a recorder that can capture the full range of human hearing in high quality with its onboard microphones, then I highly recommend you buy a recorder made by a competent company, like Tascam, Roland or Sony. If you plan to use external microphones, then the LS series is a good value because the preamps are actually nice.
I've also learned through experience that the cardioid mics on the LS-12 and LS-14 are extremely sensitive to wind noise. I know all cardioid mics suffer from this problem, but the olympus mics take it to a whole new level. Even the Sony PCM-d50 isn't this sensitive. You definitely need to use a wind screen.
Update 02/06/2013
Okay, remember how I said this recorder has nice preamps? Well, I have to take that back now. I've tested this recorder with various external microphones including a stereo matched pair of DPA 4060 mics, Soundman OKM mics, and core-sound csb mics. The preamps are indeed quiet as I noted above, but there is very bad harmonic distortion below 60 Hz, giving bass frequencies a grainy, artificial sound to them. The grainyness sounds the same no matter which external mics I use, and I can even hear it when the central mic is enabled. It has a very recognizeable sound signature. I'm done with this recorder; I'm going to move onto something better sounding, like a Sony Pcm-M10.
For the record, I no longer think that the LS-14 is a great value for the money. The Roland R-05 costs the same but has far superior electronics. It just lacks a monitor speaker, which, admittedly, does kind of suck.
Buy Olympus LS-14 Linear PCM Digital Voice Recorder Now
I've had the recorder for a few months now and there's still a lot I'm still learning. Without prior experience with such a device, the maze of settings--sample rates, PCM or compressed, limiter settings, bass roll-off settings, middle microphone on or off, etc---is a bit confounding and each new recording effort begins with experimenting to find the best combination of those settings. The device came with a multilingual quick-start sheet and no other instruction manual... at least until later I discovered that the device itself does contain a manual in PDF form stored inside, which is accessible if you use the supplied USB cable, mount the device as a drive on your computer, and browse the folder it provides.The extra musician related features--metronome, overdub, and tuning--are unused add-ons for me. I already have metronome and tuning covered when I took up an instrument. Overdubbing and the like I will likely do on the computer--especially given that I'm using the device to make digital recordings...
Do you see where I'm going with this? The truth lies somewhere between my own inexperience and questionable user design.
On the other hand, it does do everything I've needed it to do so far... especially once I followed recommendations from external reviews to turn off the noisy central microphone for most of my uses.
Read Best Reviews of Olympus LS-14 Linear PCM Digital Voice Recorder Here
The Positives:Solid build
Rich in features
Ease in set up
User-friendly design very good ergonomics
Three built-in microphones
Long battery life
Excellent recording quality
The negative:
User manual has small print
Want Olympus LS-14 Linear PCM Digital Voice Recorder Discount?
No comments:
Post a Comment