to achieve exellent sound, one will have to buy good equipment. but i dont want to spend more than 200$. so i wondered, which of these units is the best:

ZOOM H2
Tascam dr-2d
Olympus ls-5

anybody knows?

Any of these will likely produce recordings of similar quality. It is far more important that you are recording on a high quality, well-maintained piano than which of these three devices you buy.

That said, there is NO substitute for buying high quality ribbon microphones, appropriate mic-preamps/interface, computer.

This question would be better answered in a home recording forum such as the one Kompoze.com hosts. We are piano technicians. What you are asking covers a whole different field of knowledge.

Microphone choice and placement are the first place to look. The recording equipment is very secondary.

You prefer ribbon mics for piano? Fair enough, but why?

I'd suggest that microphone position and room acoustics are very important too.

well i ordered the zoom h2. should be working for my needs! thx

Whenever possible, yes. You just can't beat a really good ribbon microphone, however, there are plenty of situations when you might not want to use them (since they are very delicate), in which case I'd go for large diaphragm mics. I don't like the sound of small diaphragm pencil mics (for any instrument).

Ribbon mics are also simple enough to build yourself for a fraction of what even a mid-grade condenser mic would cost!

986, Could you elaborate?

Jim Ialeggio

http://www.diyribbonmic.com/

I built a pair in June, 2010. They're fantastic. Back then, he offered a kit with the brass tubes unfinished, and this is the version I built; I recommend getting the machined kit (as opposed to ordering raw materials) unless you have experience and tools for machining brass.... it was tough!