Zaxcom Preamps

[jazzbo]

Looking for opinions on the Zaxcom Mic preamps, particularly on the older recorders such as Nomad and Maxx. In your experience how do they compare to Nagra or Sonosax preamps?

[ramallo]

5 hours ago, jazzbo said:

Looking for opinions on the Zaxcom Mic preamps, particularly on the older recorders such as Nomad and Maxx. In your experience how do they compare to Nagra or Sonosax preamps?

 

The Maxx have a nice preamps, quiet and good sounding (On par with Sonosax IMMO), but have a hardwired low cut (not very aggressive), and no so much gain. The Nomad have a very aggressive high pass, IMMO was designed with dialogue recording in mind. 

 

If you have plans for recording dialogs both are great. For FX or music, the Maxx is better option

 

Best

[sciproductions]

This might be slightly controversial but I always hated the Zaxcom recorder pre-amps.

 

It always felt so lifeless to me, this is compared to 7-Series Sound Devices, Cantar X-3 and Sonosax R4+

 

They are definitely quiet, but just lack something that I can't quite explain (if that makes sense).

 

I will say that the Nova sounds better than the Nomad or Maxx though.

[ramallo]

I did a test with a Maxx, a Sonosax SX R4+ and a SD 722

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CCWJ9z4ZUuTfUADumHV4ec8jLrBvjxWN/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UCDAC7oxoffZIVgNrmFuc7aecXcEXZ0W/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14eRSRjxDQ_Z_lKyFqApwcYgYKd3iGG4q/view?usp=sharing

[Jeff Wexler]

I listened to all 3 recordings and I have no idea what this "test" was to accomplish. I don't understand the the test methodology --- each sample seems to obviously have different content. A valid test, in my experience, would be the same content, levels matched and recorded simultaneously all at once. Such a test might allow us to evaluate the differences. Even the test I have just described would not reveal all of the aspects of a given preamp's performance in the real world on a job.

[ramallo]

13 hours ago, Jeff Wexler said:

I listened to all 3 recordings and I have no idea what this "test" was to accomplish. I don't understand the the test methodology --- each sample seems to obviously have different content. A valid test, in my experience, would be the same content, levels matched and recorded simultaneously all at once. Such a test might allow us to evaluate the differences. Even the test I have just described would not reveal all of the aspects of a given preamp's performance in the real world on a job.

 

Is the same garden at the same hour but no same time (Only a pair of mics) (Consecutive recordings), just an ambience for have a idea about his sound (For stereo ambience). The microphones was a pair of DPA 4011 (matched pair)

 

I choosed the Maxx over the Sonosax

[Werner Althaus]

19 hours ago, sciproductions said:

This might be slightly controversial but I always hated the Zaxcom recorder pre-amps.

 

It always felt so lifeless to me, this is compared to 7-Series Sound Devices, Cantar X-3 and Sonosax R4+

 

They are definitely quiet, but just lack something that I can't quite explain (if that makes sense).

 

I will say that the Nova sounds better than the Nomad or Maxx though.

 

I think it's not as simple as that. Certain pre amps play well with certain microphones. With mic inputs we're looking for impedance bridging so a ratio of >10:1 is considered ideal. A Shure SM 57 wants to see at least 1.5KOhm and increasing/ decreasing the input impedance will alter the response. I'm unable to get impedance specs on the Zaxcom but some of the SoundDevices pres have input impedances of up to 4 KOhm brining them closer to certain studio preamps like Millennia or even specific Ribbon micpres that go up to 18KOhm or higher. With most modern mics it doesn't matter but without knowing what mic you base your opinion on it is hard to follow along.