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I use a Tascam HD-P2 as my main field recorder and have a Sony MZ-M100 mini-disc recorder as a back-up. Of course both of these need plenty of battery juice to run (8 AA for the HD-P2 alone). I found re-chargeable batteries the way to go for both of these units but finding the best brand seems an ongoing journey. In the past I used Sony AA nimh 2500 mAh; which I found to perform decently but really don’t have the longevity and life-span that I would expect from a major brand (specifically, they don’t keep their charge very long and that is inevitably getting worse with age). In the last year I’ve been using PowerEx AA nimh 2700 mAh; at the same time that these give you a little more bang (mAh) for your buck they really seem to hold their charge much longer than the Sony brand. Of course I want to see how true this is in a year or so but up until now I can charge these up full and let them sit for two weeks and they will hold most, if not all, of their charge.

Where to buy batteries is a whole other issue but I’ve been very happy with the people and prices over at Thomas Distributing: Battery Supply and Electronics.

What is your experience?

NoahC audio equipment buying batteries, consumer review