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Review: the Sanyo Xacti Sound Recorder by Mark Ungar on Friday, September 17,
2010 at 6:35pm Remember those glowing promises of the
future? We were all going to have hovercars and personal jetpacks, and there
would be moving sidewalks. While some of those things have come to pass, for
the most part life in the future is not as amazing as we thought it was going
to be. But every once in a while a device comes along that really makes you
realize: “Wow! I’m living in the future!” The Sanyo Xacti is such a device. A
couple of months ago, I was fortunate enough to participate in Sanyo's
"Capture Your Xacti Sound," Trial Program. Sanyo was seeking “artists
that are well recognized for their performances and/or recordings in their
musical genre and, in the particular, the influential niche that they have
carved out in the music world.” Notwithstanding, I applied as a representative
of Axis of Blues, and shortly thereafter received the recorder. No doubt about it, this is one cute, slick-looking
device. It’s the size of a cell phone...a very small cellphone; in fact, in
comparison, an iPhone is bloated and gargantuan. It measures only 38.8 x 96.3 x
9.4mm, which, translated into inches is “really tiny”. The mysterious black
face is almost featureless, having only 3 small buttons. There are actually
nine more Touch Sensor buttons that appear when you power it up. The 1” by 1”
display screen and operating lights are spy-approved red on black. The Xacti is so small and light, it’s
almost hard for me to hold! Holding and navigating it took me some getting used
to, as it seems tiny in my hands, and literally weighs almost nothing – only
1/10th of a pound! If I’ve recently been working with my hands or playing bass
a lot, my fingers become calloused, and the Touch Sensor buttons won’t respond
to them. This makes navigation awkward, since I then end up having to use my
pinky, which is the only finger left that’s sufficiently soft and, well,
pink. Also, it’s easy to accidentally push the Touch Sensor buttons
simply holding and handling the device, especially if you’re trying to be slick
and do things one-handed. These are relatively minor concerns however, and I
quickly got over these initial problems. The Xacti records on the supplied 2GB
microSD card, and will accommodate up to an 8GB one. You can record stereo PCM
(.wav) files at 44.1 kHz and 16 bits, and 5 different sampling frequency/bit
rates of MP3 files, up to 320 kbps at 44.1kHz and 16
bits. The 2GB chip is good for 3 hours of PCM recording and an insane 13.5
hours of 320kbps MP3s. There are two tiny microphones built
into the shoulders of the unit. When positioned horizontally, the Xacti records
in a 360 degree range. The mics can be set to High or Low sensitivity, with 30
incremental adjustments available in each setting. I’ve taken the recorder to
dozens of rehearsals and gigs of several different electric and acoustic bands
I play with, and have found that the Low sensitivity setting is the most useful
for recording music. Within the Low setting, I usually also have to adjust the
mics down to the low single digits, around 3 or 4. In other words, the mics and
the recorder itself are very sensitive. This would make the Xacti very useful
for interviews and conferences. Although there is a Recording Peak Limiter that
does an excellent job, the Xacti will distort at extremely high sound levels. You can also use the Xacti as an FM
radio tuner. I’ve tried it once or twice, and it seems to work fine. A bonus
feature here is that you can record what you’re listening to on the radio! Oh, by the way: the Xacti also includes
a tiny playback speaker on its back, which is more useful than you might think. You can connect the recorder to your
computer via the included USB cable. This also charges the unit’s battery. By now you may be thinking, is there
anything the Xacti can’t do? Well, yes. It is also designed to be used as a
music player, capable of playing wav, mp3, and wma files. However, in practice,
it is extremely frustrating to use it for this purpose. In order to play your
songs more than one at a time, you must create a playlist. But you cannot do it
on your computer – you must do it on the Xacti, and the process is slow,
tedious and user-unfriendly. And during setlist playback, there are unpleasant
glitchy sounds as it changes tracks. And the 2GB chip fills up mighty fast when
you have a large music library. Best to use some other device to listen to your
tunes; this function of the Xacti is essentially a failure (although it’s a
failure of programming, not of basic ability to play back a file). There are several other features I’m
not going to go into here, including the ability to use an external mic, EQ,
and file editing…there are just a ridiculous number of features. The bottom line is this: the Xacti is
simply an amazing device. It is a very high quality audio recorder in a
phenomenally small package. It is convenient to take almost anywhere. One can
easily make album-quality live recordings with it. It would be an invaluable
tool for any music student or professional musician. And for the price ($150),
it’s a steal. Although I already own a Sony PCM D-50, a great recorder which
was on many reviewers’ Best Device of 2009 Lists, I often find myself taking
the Xacti to gigs and rehearsals instead just because of its incredible
convenience and tinyness. This is when the realization that we’re
living in the future hits. In 1965 when I started learning guitar, cassette
recorders would not exist for another 2 years. After they came along, for the
next 30 years they remained by default the only affordable recorders available.
And they were terrible – with crappy mics that were virtually useless for
recording electric bands, using a bulky, sequential-access, expensive storage
medium. The recorders themselves were heavy and large . By comparison, the Xacti is literally a
miracle! It fits in a pocket or guitar case. It captures studio-quality
recordings. Anyone learning music today is amazingly lucky to have a device
like this available to them. Sometimes you have to admit: life in the future is
great! |