I think the biggest problem the H4 has is the
same input jack doubles as the Line-In and Mic-In (Phantom). And that same input accommodates TRS and XLR connections. Squeezing all that stuff through the same pipe has to produce a lot of noise. I got a feeling the H2's noise floor will be considerably lower just based on a separate 3.5mm Line-In jack. Does that make sense to anyone or am I off my rocker?
The most important thing for me on the H2: good ADC like the Edirol line and a solidly built 3.5mm Line-In jack. My H4 recordings did not have a lot of depth to them. When I EQ'd the room noise out, I'd get a lot of distortion where it was never present in anything else I recorded with before (ex. AD20, UA-5, R09, R-1, etc).
Oh yeah, my R09 Line-In crapped out last week. Toss me on the pile.