CF cards/ write speed for Marantz PMD660 (1 Viewer)

[mark pearman]

Hi,

I just purchased a Marantz PMD660 and have a few questions for any owners of this solid state recorder, or for anyone else that may be able to help.

1. Which CF card ?
Can anyone recommend a make of Compact Flash card over others for this
recorder. On this subject, the "User Guide" refers one to a web site which
gives zero help, which was surprising and at the same time compromising
since I live in a country where few cards are available. The following cards were considered compatible via a web link:
LEXAR, PNY, VIKING, IBM and Hitachi. However, this still leaves me wondering
which make of card is most productive with the PMD660 and which are not ?
Any others give good results ? In particular, most of these cards are not
available in my country of residence, so it could be important for me to
choose the best card from abroad. Here, the only CF cards available are
Transcend, Elite, Kingston and Sandisk and ultimately Lexar which is
difficult to obtain. If I were to be influenced by advertising and spec.
charts, I would be inclined towards LEXAR, and while Sandisk appears to be
highly rated among CF cards, it's not recommended for the PMD660. Any
comments ?

2. Formatting the CF card.
The User Guide states that the CF card must be formatted in FAT16 or FAT32.
Do any of the cards mentioned above already come in this format ? Can any or all of these cards be formatted via the USB - PC connection without having to buy a card reader ?

3. Write speed of the CF card.
This may be a dumb question, but looking through the User Guide and
specifications it's not at all clear (at least to me), whether I should use
a card with 133 x or 300 x write speed; the latter being more expensive but perhaps not necessary ? Note that I will be mainly recording in PCM 48 kHz format in mono, and that the bit rate is 768 kbps. for WAV. files.

4. Is "read speed" important on CF cards ?
In some spec. charts, I noticed that read speed vs. write speed is
porportionately much higher for Sandisk cards versus Lexus cards. Is this
important/ can anyone comment ?

5. Card size for field use.
I intend to buy 2GB cards, and switch them in the field when necessary.....
any comments other than that already stated in the User Guide ? By price, I
considered that I would never record more than 2GB's worth in a day
(uncompressed), and am able to download a days recordings in the field to a
PC. If a card fails on me, I'd at least have another 2GB back-up card
available in the field at any particular time. Or, should I consider 1GB or
4Gb cards ? Or even 8GB cards ?

Many thanks in advance for any comments,

cheers,
mark

 

[Sounds-a-tweet]

Hello Mark, I think I can help you with some of your questions, although I'm sure there are other forum members with the Marantz recorder that will help more.

Regarding formatting, most of the machines have the capability to format in FAT 32, you shouldn't need to use a card reader. Usually the recorder can be connected to the PC, so the card pops up as an external drive. This allows the files to be transferred to the computer.

I use CF cards with a Sound Devices recorder.
The recorder has a speed testing utilty, so I have been able to compare Sandisk and Lexar cards.

The Ultra 2 CF 2GB has a write speed of 7300 kbps, the 4GB around 5500 kbps, the 8GB 6900 kbps and a Lexar 80X 2GB 7000 kbps.

Any of the tested cards are plenty quick enough for high res recording in my machine. I think going to superfast cards as you suggest may be a waste of money. These cards have become available for very high res cameras, where the flash memory can act as a bottleneck for taking successive pictures. The "older" quick cards are now much much cheaper than before.
Watch out for fake items sold on certain websites, try and buy in a sealed packet from a reputable dealer.

As to the size of card to buy, considerations include the max size of card the recorder can handle, the longevity of the socket connections with many insertions and price. It is sometimes better value to buy say a 4GB card per GB, than a couple of 2GB cards.

You may find that you will easily record more than 2GB in a day if luck is your way. It would be annoying to miss a recording while changing a card.
Having many smaller cards may be a disadvantage as they may be lost easier in the field.

See if there any forums on the net that have Marantz users, they may have recommendations for you !

Hope this helps
Andy

 

[mark pearman]

Hi Andy,

Very many thanks for your advice... great stuff. But, I'm finding it tough to find the "older quick cards" via internet in the UK, bearing in mind that someone will be bringing them out to me in Argentina in 10 days or so.

As I said the only cards recommended for the Marantz PMD660 are Lexar and a bunch of others (PNY, Viking, IBM, Hitachi) that don't seem to make cards of over 1 GB. Unless I risk using another card like sandisk, this leaves me with the option of Lexar or .....errrrhm Lexar.

The 80x Lexar 2GB and 4 GB cards seem to be off the market, and 133x and 300x seem to be the norm.... ie. superfast card.

Anyone know where to buy Lexar 4GB's 80x in the UK ?

Again, I still need to know which other makes of cards might be compatible with the PMD660 if there are any users reading this.

Cheers from sunny Argentina where I did manage to see my sixth Harpy and second Puma last week,

Mark

 

[Sounds-a-tweet]

Hi Mark, I guess there isn't any reason not to use the faster Lexar cards, except for cost. They always seemed to be more expensive than the Sandisk or Kingston cards of the same speed.

As I mentioned, the Ultra 2's are about a quarter of the price they were 18 months ago, so you would think that the "slower !" 80X Lexar's would also have dropped proportionally.

I hope you have some success in your search.
Cheers
Andy

 

[mark pearman]

Thanks again Andy,

cheers,
Mark