Sony HVR-V1U Has a Serious Audio Defect

Hello everyone. My name is Mark Weiss, from Connecticut. I run a small video

production company, mainly covering event videos (cultural dance, orchestral

and other musical performances, fashion shows, weddings, corporate video,

etc). I'm also an avid audiophile. My background and profession before I

retired was Professional Engineer, focused in radio broadcast, which
included

design of FM processors, stereophonic technology for over the air

transmission, etc.

I designed my own sound system in the 1970s and have acoustic design

background as well.


I own a couple of Sony VX2000s, but with the urgency to move to HD and sell

the earlier gear before it loses all sale value, I moved to the HVR-V1U. I

chose this camera for it's 30P capability, better video lens and...

professional quality balanced audio inputs. At last, I thought... a camera

where I can connect my Neumann U87s and actually record music with
reasonable

fidelity!

Well, the reality was starkly different from the hope that the appearance of

these connectors gave me. At first, I thought there was a mistake in

manufacture with the first V1U, but when the second one arrived, I realized
it

was no mistake. They really DO roll off below 1222Hz! I became so interested

in accurately measuring the response of the camera that I did numerous
tests,

finally ending up with the industry standard RightMark test. The results are

abysmal. The camera fails on frequency response. It gets a "very poor"
rating.


What else can one rationally give it when you go out and record a marching

band, with the bass drum thumping your chest, and you come back to the
studio,

play back the recording and those thundering bass drums only sound like

tapping on paper cups--this played on a legendary sound system
world-renowned

for its bass response.

Needless to say, I think Sony has a major issue to correct with these
cameras.

It's worse than the PD150 hiss problem. In all other respects, the V1U audio

is acceptable. s/n is pretty good for a camera, but there's no excuse to
roll

off the low end at 1222Hz. Look at these results, carefully measured under

laboratory conditions:

http://www.basspig.com/HVR-V1U_PCM_Audio(DV).htm


This response curve is what I'd expect to see from the high pass output of a

two-way crossover network. No preamp in the world is this poor. There is no

excuse for the camera not to be flat to 5Hz, like every other piece of
digital

recording equipment I own. Even my $299 Zoom H4 is flat to 5Hz and sounds
way

better than the audio on this camera.

One of the attractive features of the V1U is the promise of higher end audio

than the VX2000. Anyone seeing the attention Sony paid to XLR inputs with

adjustable attenuators, individual AGC, etc., would conclude that the audio

better be pretty darned good. Instead, it's about telephone quality. Even

female speakers at a lecture I recorded sound thin and lacking in body to

their voices, and this was with 20-20,000Hz condenser mics known for their
big

bottom end sound.

I am very disappointed, and so far, the technical support folks at Sony have

been silent about the results of their testing that they are supposedly

conducting on this camera at my request. It's been almost 2 weeks since
they'd

said they would contact me with their findings. I can only hope that they

decide to recall the camera model and correct this glaring defect.




--


Take care,



Mark & Mary Ann Weiss



VIDEO PRODUCTION . FILM SCANNING . DVD MASTERING . AUDIO RESTORATION
Hear my Kurzweil Creations at: www.dv-clips.com/theater.htm
www.basspig.com The Bass Pig's Lair - 15,000 Watts of Driving Stereo!
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