Tascam SD-20M Solid State Recorder wih XLR Mic Inputs

I bought this unit after working for more than 6 months with the SD-20M big brother the Tascam DA-3000. even tho the DA3K is an excellent unit it is primarily design for a studio and professional use. So during the Covid 19 period at home I have decided to work on a digitizing project of all the Vinyl and Magnetic tape formats I have collected during the years (a few thousands of LP's, cassettes, Reel to Reel, DAT's and VHS with HiFi music). For this task I have selected the Tascam SD-20M because it is design for more consumer and amateur tasks. It works fine, record through either XLR in the front (more on this later) and through RCA line inputs and outputs in the back. It does not have any digital connections whats so ever, which is fine for me because i use my large collection of vintage electronics I have assembled through the years which does not have any digital inputs and outputs. For all the above i easily give this unit 5 stars. And now to the biff section: I understand to need to have an XLR's inputs (1-2) in the front because the unit can be used in 19" racks in churches, live broadcasts, and so forth with the input level controls located next to it. At home its a bit of an inconvenient to have such a large connection stuck up front with cable attached to the XLR connections. That's OK however I can live with that but with such a large real estate in the back of the 20M another set of XLR's could be added to duplicate the front one. With the line inputs (3-4) in the back in the proper place (rear) why is the input levels control in the front of the unit does not apply to the line input. additional switch to select which inputs is being controlled will allow both inputs 1-2 and 3-4 to monitor the input levels alternately or in a dual mode. (Tascam I hope you read this review for the design on the next 20M). That's about it no other issue's to think about now, so the verdict stands, still 5 stars

TASCAM siempre ha sido una marca dentro de la industria del audio, de alguna manera entre Profesional y Semi-profesional, con características de calidad en sus productos. Pros: -) Grabación a medio SD Card. -) WAV (Normal y Broadcast), MP3 -) 24 bits de profundidad a velocidad de hasta 96 Khz de muestreo. (sonido con mayor definición) -) 4 canales de entrada (2 RCA y 2 XLR para micrófonos de condensador con +48 V de Phantom Power y ere-amplificador integrado). Contras: -) ¿Por qué no incluir también un puerto USB para conectar una memoria flash USB? -) Salidas balanceadas (lo haría más profesional). -) Botones, deberían ser de silicón con iluminación en el botón, pues los que trae la unidad, que son de plástico, se sienten como de un equipo doméstico. -) Para grabar, existen las opciones de hacerlo con 2 micrófonos, el único detalle es que se hace en L y R, mic1 en L y mic2 en R, pero si lo pones en estéreo escucharás un micrófono en cada bocina, y no permite hacer paneo (ubicar el micrófono en mono) en cada canal. -) Y aunque existe la opción de grabar en mono1, sólo lo hace para el canal 1 y no permite grabar en el canal 2. En resumen buen equipo, pero con un FIRMWARE podrían actualizar esta función de grabación, por eso le quito una estrella.

In digitizing my vinyl / 78 collection, I've been trying out different things. I finally settled on this unit. At first, I was disappointed with the performance as I was using a standard RCA connection, and this unit offers no level control, other that gain increase on the RCA connection. After figuring out what would work to use the front TRS/XLR connection, things look a whole lot better. First off, I am puzzled as to why the input options differ between the 2 inputs. The front TRS/XLR connection offers plenty of input level options, including the level control dials on the front. Why the back RCA inputs offer no level control, except increasing the gain, is silly. I understand this a professional grade unit, and most likely professional grade equipment will have output level controls, but at this price point, it's not unreasonable to think that home users would buy this as well. With the RCA inputs from my consumer grade stereo system, the signal was way too hot, and the entire recordings were clipped all the way through. So if you're going to buy this with the intention of recording from RCA, make sure you have some way to decrease the line out level from the equipment you are using to record from. Now that I've settled that, the recordings made with this are simply awesome. You can record in WAV format from 16/44.1 up to 24/96, which is what I am using for my vinyl recording as this pairs well with my Sony Walkman Hi-Res player. You can also record in several quality formats of MP3, up to 48kHz 320 bitrate. Navigation and recording techniques take a little getting used to, and you really need to read the manual to discover all the available options. But once I put some time in on this, navigation and operation were simple enough. The buttons and controls are a bit tiny on this unit, understandable for all that's included in a limited space, but using the controls are a bit cumbersome for my thick fingers. The ease of SD recoding, and removing the card and popping it into my PC and copying files in a few seconds is well worth it. The quality of the recordings is simply stunning, and error-free. The unit accepts up to 128Gb Micro SDXC cards (with a SD adapter). Anything over 128GB will result in an invalid card error. I know, I tried! Best of all, no moving parts to wear out in the recording unit. Again, I am a home user, so these are my home user opinions, but this is a really great alternative to CD recording. I do not like the fact that I have to use the front inputs with the cables sticking out the front. Again, understandable as to what the unit is intended for - a rack mount unit which makes cable swapping easy for the pros. If TEAC made a home version of this, with all the connections in back and all available level controls, this would be perfect. I've looked at the few other SD recording units here on Amazon, and they were all very poorly rated. I settled on this unit because of the many high ratings it received. I'm glad I did.

Meet all my requirements for a recorder easy to use solid firmware and an excellent choice for anybody needing to record use the front line in Jack’s the XLR connectors to my mixer audio quality is superb up to 24 hours of recording on 128 gig card works like a charm this would be a good choice for entry-level recording in any studio or club currently getting an input from my native instruments traktor s4 mk3 and used to record my sets nightly at a very large venue in the Northwest

Basically a 1RU version of the portable DR-40. I use this as a backup during live streaming in case Audition crashes during production.The audio recordings made are good with no hiss or extra noises that some of the other brand solid state recorders sometimes make. Minor gripes though. There is a lack of a USB port although it uses SD cards. I like using USB drives for convenience and to grab recording to throw into a laptop without using card reader or to record and directly review,edit direct from the recorder on PC. Channels 1-2 have input volume control and auto leveling in the front. It would have been nice for 3-4 (inputs in back) to have same input control feature as well as the auto leveling option that for some reason TASCAM choose not to include. I personally use the inputs in back of all my equipment when possible to keep studio desk aesthetics tidy and clean. On that note, the size of the unit is bigger than it should be. Maybe the extra depth is for heat dissipation but it hangs out the back of rack past the Pro VLA a few inches. Why? For the money and the brand it is a solid buy. Audio is 4 stars and the unit itself 4 stars. But little things stated above could be improved.