kevenb (04/19/83)
I recently purchased a sony walkman pro (about 300.00), and found it to be excellent for portable recording. I've done a lot of recording of live music in bars with very good results. When the tapes are played back at home, the imaging and sense of live music is remarkable. As far as VU meters are concerned, there is only an LED meter (with five steps) which shows the average of the two channels. Additionally, the gain control works on both channels at the same time. If you have more money to spend there is one more sony which costs about 700.00. It has dual VU meters and individual gain controls. This is not one of the walkman series, so it is larger, about 2"h x 8d x 10w. Also it is not usually stocked by sony dealers, unless they carry the "pro" equipment. Personally I prefer the walkman pro, since it is a convient size and performs quite well. It has dolby and records on all standard tape types including metal. The lack of individual channel control can be compensated for by careful mike placement, and the average reading VU meter works fine as long as you are not trying to push the tape. Finally on the Nakamichi, they do not use the standard NAB tape equalization curve. If you plan to play your tapes back on something other than another Nak deck, you will not realize the full fidelity of your recording. Sorry this was so long, just another wordy day. Keven Boyett tektronix!tekid!kevenb 503-627-3867