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APPEARANCE & BUILD: Although small, the boxy form factor isn’t palm friendly and is at its best on a Magic Arm or tripod. The plastic body feels well made but isn’t as sturdy as the metal clad DR-100 II. Unlike most Tascam portables, there are no built-in mics. A tiny monochrome LCD displays levels, modes and menus. It’s not a touchscreen but is clearly visible in darkness and direct sunlight. And, because it’s not angled like the DR-70D LCD, it’s visible in a bag, on the floor or topside a camera.
A tripod socket beneath and tripod bolt above allow connection to studio support and cameras. I use an Arca plate for fast mount/dismount. The top tripod bolt feels flimsy and I wouldn't trust it to hold anything heavier than a battery pack.
CONTROLS: I choose the DR-60D MKII over the DR-70D due to the abundance of physical controls—specifically phantom power switches—and the forward facing LCD. When attached on an arm or tripod, the frontal LCD and controls are easier to see and use compared to “palm” recorders like the H6 or DR-100 MKII. The rubberized buttons and wheels operate smoothly and are easy to access. Channels 1/2 have individual gain controls but, oddly, 3/4 sports only a single global level adjustment.
MIC CONNECTION: Combo XLR and TRS inputs allow recording from external mics or line level sources such as mixers or outboard mic preamps. XLR preamps have four levels of input sensitivity but, unlike the DR-100 II, sensitivity is set via menus (no switches). There’s a switch to toggle XLR inputs from mic, phantom power and line level. Mini/3.5 mm stereo mic input is also supported, defaulting to channels 3/4. Power for the 3.5mm mic input lacks a switch and must be activated from a menu.
BATTERIES: Four AA batteries are housed in a backside compartment. Batteries can be swapped out while the unit is on a tripod. I use Eneloop Pro rechargeable batteries and they only last about four hours with 48v phantom power. Standard Eneloop work okay but the slightly larger size make them tough to install/remove. The short battery life is disappointing but easy to work around (see below).
The mini-USB port is only for bus power or uploading to a computer. For long sessions I plug in a USB “lipstick” battery bank and it yields an additional four or five hours. For marathon sessions I strap on a USB battery bank, the Anker Astro E4 13000mAh Portable Charger : power for days with phantom power and can be attached to the top of the DR-60D with a smartphone tripod mount.
SOUND QUALITY: I mainly record soft finger picked guitars and preamps have plenty of gain when set to “high” sensitivity: 25 to 50% gain for -12 dB set with KM-184 mics. Quiet passages and rests of classical guitar pieces were wonderfully clean and devoid of noise. Preamps are significantly cleaner than the DR-40 and a notch better than the DR-100 II. The DR-60 MKII and two Neumann KM-184 mics were used to record the audio of my uploaded video at 48kHz/24 bit (synced to EOS 70D video).
Finally, the 60D MKII can record various combinations of stereo and mono modes, e.g., stereo plus two mono tracks, but these tracks must be recorded simultaneously. In other words, unlike the DR-40 and DR-44WL, it lacks the ability to “punch in,” while playing back a track. Normally I’d add additional audio in a DAW during post production but it seems odd to omit such features when similar units have them.
LAST BLURB: I'm happy with the DR-60D: excellent recording quality, clean preamps, plenty of gain for soft instruments and easy to use form factor for "selfie" audio and video recording. Operation is straightforward and I barely needed to open the manual. Cons are short battery life, no built-in mics, small LCD and no punch-in features. All in all, the DR-60D MKII is a great choice for those needing to record live music performances and DSLR audio.
