I gave the Zoom its maiden voyage last night. The Breakfast - with Ron's heavy bass. Recorded at a small club. Ran : AKG 483 > Zoom H4, Low Gain, 16/44.1, no pad on the mics. Results: Brickwalling.
The H4 couldn't handle the unattenuated heavy bass from the 480s, which have a sensitivity of 20 mv. So Test #1 failed.
Test #2 will be Monday night when I run the AT853Rx > Zoom H4 for Ratdog. Kenny's heavy bass should give me another solid test. The AT853RX has a sensitivity of 7 mv and is 30 > 20K. I'm also gonna try out the "Auto-Gain" function. It works like a pad,from what I read. If this next test fails, I can only think of in-line attenuators as the final solution for heavy bass shows. If this test succeeds, then I'll try out the 480s with the -10 pad employed on the module.
I did run a backup rig: AT853RX (H) > Tascam HD-P2 for The Breakfast show. The biggest difference so far, is the bass. I'll be running 2 rigs again at Ratdog.
The good:
1) Easy setup and go. Records with no drop outs.
2) "Hold" mechanism works.
3) Phantom power easily handled the 480s.
4) I haven't done a complete analysis of battery time, so I swapped batteries in between sets. My original setting were kept by the Zoom, so I didn't have to re-create the settings. I did jot down what I was set at, just in case. But not needed.
5) ADC is pretty clean for a recorder this size.
The bad:
1) It takes the Zoom about 20-25 seconds to power up. A little too long if you're caught in a pinch. Need to factor that in, if you are powered down in between sets and taking an extended break away from the gear.
2) When you format the card, the Zoom goes back to factory settings: on-board mic, 16/44.1 wav.
The ugly:
1) Brickwalling with high sensitive mics and heavy bass. Bass sounded distorted when compared to the Tascam. The Zoom does have a "Auto Gain" function that monitors the incoming sound and adjusts the gain so there is no distortion. I'm gonna try that out too. It the closest thing it has for any kind of pad. Just like the Marantz 660, you'll need to deploy a pad.