Zoom F3 v Podtrak P4 Preamp test (with Shure SM7B)

The p4 pre's were noticeably colder sounding....to me anyways

ajudou demais camarada. Sucinto, objetivo e direto! parabéns pelo vídeo

Where did you get your waveform animation?

Thank you for this video! Do you know wether the Sm58 would perform similarly with the zoom pod track p4?

Excellent! I wish someone would do this preamp comparison with a Zoom F3 and Tascam X6 ... I've been on the fence between these because I am not sure how often I'd use built in mics and people say the F3 sounds better but realistically I wonder how much better exactly

Just putting a simple DMX Plug (which is a XLR plug with a 12 Ohm resistor on it) on the end of the cable, instead of whatever microphone would be more conclusive of the noise of the preamp / mic combination, because it would remove any room noise from the equation. Granted, there’s a difference in impedance of about 30 Ohms, but since the thermal noise of both, the 120 Ohms Resistor and the SM7B is well below the EIN of any preamp you will usually find on the market, it shouldn’t even matter, as the preamp will always be louder. The easiest way to have a consistent noise measurement, is to first set the gain on both devices to give you as close as possible of a signal on your SM7B, then plug in the DMX Plug instead and record the noise. And even in theory, if the resistor had the same frequency response as the SM7B, we would talk about a noise difference of less than 1dB, that a SM7B would be louder.

Nonetheless, the noise of the the preamp/microphone combo - more often than not - is quieter than the room you’re recording in. Also the SM7B somehow rejecting room noise is - for the most part - a myth. If you use each microphone on the same distance and set the gain high enough for each microphone to reach the same signal level, the frequency response and pickup pattern will have a much higher impact, than the build of whatever microphone will ever have.