I took it out for a spin on Friday, after printing out the manuals (only a Quick Start guide was included in the box, the rest is online) and also downloading the Windows software for the player/editor which they finally posted Friday morning. I used it as a backup for my main piano rig, I wanted to see how it did for real sound in a tough comparison, not for any of the gee-whiz virtual reality stuff the marketing youtube videos show.
First off, it seems rather fragile. I worry that the buttons on it seem easy to break or jam. I didn't get to read the 120 page manual before setting up, but the H3-VR is a piece of cake to operate, I was doing 4 tracks at 24/96 (A or B format, FuMa or Ambix). It records 2 GB interlaced files with seamless splits every 1/2 hour. I recorded about 3 hours, NiMH AAs (2 of them) down less than 1/3 way judging by the recharging info on my Powerex charger.
My main recording was done with Josephson C617s with LD caps (Gefell) on a Jecklin Disc towards the tail of the piano, this is my goto piano setup and even after 7-8 years I still amaze myself with how great they sound. Nothing is coming close to this. I chose to use FuMu B format for the Zoom, since this gives WXYZ files I can handle like the WXY native channels on my Josephson C700S. I will have to try a comparison of the H3-VR with the C700S soon.
The Zoom software lets you convert any of the ambisonic formats to stereo, binaural, or some custom mix you can pick by fooling around putting your ears anywhere with their sound field sphere. If you record only stereo tracks you can also do 24/96 but recording binaural is limited to 48kHz. When you convert a 24/96 ambisonic recording to binaural you also get a 96kHz file but I think it's only really 48kHz there, the room I was recording in has a motion detecting acoustic signal at about 32.77kHz that I can see in the ambisonic files and also in the conversion to stereo that is not there in the conversion to binaural.
The sound I got on the stereo and binaural files was decent, also the Blumlein files I got from mixing X and Y channels, but all were lacking the bass richness of the C617s. With the C700S I occasionally take the Blumlein XY mix and mix in a low-passed W (omni) signal to pick up missing bass. With the C700, this works nicely because the W is a LD omni cap with good bass response; for tetrahedral ambisonic mics with cardioid caps W is a virtual mic omni made from cardioids. The low-passed W track on the Zoom helped things a bit, but this is not going to replace my C617s. The Core Sound Octomic claims response to very low frequencies, there may be an Octomic in my future.
Although I hear the C700S is better, I really can’t tell by how much. Here are two samples, any feedback is welcome on how the two stack up. I can’t recall any small backup recorder (even the Nagra Lino) doing as well.
https://spaces.hightail.com/receive/5YwhznwNWBI will be trying the Zoom out later today recording a lecture, I will fool around a bit trying to make a shotgun pattern in post to track the speaker. The software that lets you put yourself at different locations is really very cool and has a very high wow factor, I understand why they are marketing it so heavily. I also just got a Zylia 19-mic (all omni) sphere, that looks like it has a steeper learning curve, at least for how I want to use it.
Jeff