I use the more affordable version—the Sony PCM D50. No frills, just a really low noise floor. Perfect for easily portable field recordings for ambient.
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Is there a built-in microphone in the TX-6 or are you referring to the OP-1f ?
no you need to use an external mike on the TX-6. The OP-1 has one I think.
The reviews are not good. Supposedly the handling noise is terrible.
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Yeah, I was going to put that same video on my post above. I watched it earlier today. When he held it up to his microwave, it got into Soma Ether territory:)
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I would love to have a tape-based portable recorder, but the used prices are nuts. I would like the instant-start of tape, no waiting for it to boot up.
Thats so sad. Wonder if all units are like that.
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Indeed!
I come back to this thread after a long time with a basic question: what’s the recommendation for a casual portable field recorder nowadays? Nothing fancy.
What’s important to me is convenience. Not too big, good sound, good battery life and ease of transfer to a computer.
Sorry if that’s beaten to death, I’m fishing 
Yes absolutely! You would think one of the old companies would see that there’s a market for this stuff again.
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Tascam dr-05 is imho still incredible bang for buck and checks all the boxes you wrote down.
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Is it fast to boot up? And good-enough for recording quiet nature?
For quite nature sounds you might want to reduce the noise level by choosing both, the recorder and the microphone accordingly and of course it depends on the budget on how low noise you can get. The Zoom F3 is supposed to be a low noise recorder and with its 32 bit float you have better abilities for post-processing recordings and increasing volume without losing too much detail. Another advantage is, that you don’t need to worry about gain parameters, because of the dynamic range of 32-bit float (like with the new zoom recorders mentioned above).
When it comes to microphones I‘d recommend omnidirectional capsules to be able to also get into binaural recording. I‘ve chosen the Rode NT5 MP + Omni capsules. The noise level is not perfect, but good enough for me until I can spend 2K for a pair of Sennheiser MKH 80xx, which sound insane to my ears.
It‘s not very portable, but for me it adds that bit of value carrying a blimp or stereo bar with me.
The bootup time on the F3 is 2 or 3 seconds I guess.
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Yup. Much faster than zoom h5 for example.
For recording quiet nature you’d need a very low noise floor. Which means external microphones and good preamps. Which in most cases won’t be very portable nor casual.
For this dr-05 will be usable but definitely not excellent.
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The SoundDevices MixPre-3 is still pretty portable and should be lower noise. You will, of course, pay accordingly.
I just get the Zoom F3 and the sound quality is incredible. Record at very very low volume, no problem you boost gain in your DAW and you still have a clear sound. Record at very high volume, no problem you reduce gain in your DAW and still no clipping or distortion.
You can attach it everywhere on you and you forgot it, just focus on you microphone and what you want to record.
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I’ve been meaning to make a proper for sale post for this, haven’t got around to it yet. Perhaps it might be of interest for someone looking to get into field recording:
I have a Tascam DR-70D 4 channel field recorder + bag w/ shoulder/waist strap + Anker USB power bank that can power it for ages. It has a couple of built in mics but you’ll ideally want to stuff into it, it has decent preamps. The bag is a little ‘tactical’ thing off of Amazon I modified (cut slits in side pockets for cable exits), it’s a bit crude but it’s actually quite a comfortable and secure little package, I’ve done a few long walks across country with it with no problems. You would probably want to use low profile or right angle connectors if you needed to fill all the inputs. And the USB power bank hasn’t been used much, fits neatly in the bottom of the bag under the recorder.
Would be good for a starter rig or if you just need something cheap and light to chuck in a bag with you when travelling. You can get some excellent cheap little electret capsule mics from micbooster.com, and contact mics are another very cheap and fun way of capturing unusual sounds.
I haven’t decided on a price yet but it would be less than £150 anyway. I’m in the UK.
My current main gear is a MixPre and various mics depending on situation, though the blimp mounted pseudo-SASS/binaural rig I made out of plywood and Primo EM272 capsules is still the best setup for representing stereo ambience that I’ve found. And for a compact handheld I still use the venerable Sony PCM-M10, it’s crazy how good the battery life is on that thing, and it’s excellent for plugging in some electret mics like the Primos.
As long as a handheld has decent line/mic ins you can get a lot of use out of them with external mics.
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Just wondering what outs are you using to record your SSL SIX to the H1N headphones? Or main outs XLR to mini TRS? I ask because I get a really hot signal from the main outs when I record into my interface and I don’t like using the PAD to bring the signal level down I think it takes away from the sound when I record using the PAD.
I use the SiX main outs XLR to 1/4 into a patch bay, then to the H1n via 1/4 stereo to the 1/8 line in. Never had any issues but do have to dial back on the H1n gain.
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I also have the Zoom F3 and love it for its simplicity, very small size, very fast powering-on, absence of gain setting, etc. Also, file transfer to the computer is very straightforward. Everything seems stripped down to the few features that are really needed for recording directly from one’s synths or in the field. In addition, it feels very rugged and solid, and battery life is very good. I also got the Bluetooth dongle, and found that the Zoom app works perfectly on my Android phone.
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Id advise everyone looking for a good recorder to try to find a Sony PCM-100! You won’t need anything else; I’ve only added a pair of inexpensive omnidirectional mics (Lom Usi) but I could live without them really