Topic: Zoom H1 (announced at Musikmesse)

[flintstone]

Samson, the USA distributor of the Zoom H1, has a web page up.
http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=2053&brandID=4

Gizmodo says MSRP in USA is $99, delivery to start in June. 
Looks like a replacement for the venerable H2.

Flintstone

[junkyardt]

the ring on the top of this thing reminds me of the rings that made up the transport machine in the movie 'Contact', like if you drop your mics through it they will blast off to another galaxy.

[nameloc01]

lol.

[sunjan]

Samson, the USA distributor of the Zoom H1, has a web page up.
http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=2053&brandID=4

Gizmodo says MSRP in USA is $99, delivery to start in June. 

Apparently, this was demoed at Summer NAMM last week:
http://www.soundonsound.com/news?NewsID=12945
Initial street price landing at $99 with Sweetwater and the other usual retailers. New shipping date for US: July 30.

[Ozpeter]

It's now scheduled for release on August 20, according to Sweetwater.

[Ozpeter]

First user comment I've seen is at http://www.2090.org/zoom/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=15400 fwiw.

[sunjan]

A few reviews with more photos, sound samples and comparisons:
http://www.joeno1.net/wp/2010/08/26/shopping/zoom-h1-handy-portable-digital-recorder-consumer-review/13770/
http://ryansloan.net/2010/09/02/zoom-h1-review/
http://www.danmccomb.com/posts/633/zoom-h1-sound-test-vs-h4n-recorder/

[SmokinJoe]

I have a Zoom Q3.  It's a Youtube class video camera with Zoom H2/H4n class mics, so the video isn't much better than a typical cell phone or point and shoot digital camera,  but the sound is much better.  On the Q3 it's mic only (no external inputs) and you gain options are switchable High/Low/AGC... no up/down a few dB.

I thought this might be the same, but I can see in the third photo down that there is "input adjust".
http://ryansloan.net/2010/09/02/zoom-h1-review/

[Ozpeter]

There's some YouTube reviews eg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFqIp095GD4&feature=related which has all-H1 sound.  However, YouTube sound itself is I think a bit mangled, so I think you have to be careful not to attribute any shortcomings to the H1 itself (unless proven!).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8F5J7T6e1Y&feature=related starts with camcorder sound then switches to H1 sound - quite a difference!

Also,  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrYX1r9gfGY&feature=related has lav mic audio using the H1 - sounds fine to me in noise terms.  Much better than you'd get from the mic preamp of the H2, which is weirdly noisy.

[wipeman]

Some noise tests for this unit posted here:
http://zoomforum.us/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=15488

[Ozpeter]

http://cheesycam.com/zoom-h1-battery-drain/ and a number of other sites are reporting that many users are finding that the H1 drains batteries very quickly when switched off.  Zoom appear to have admitted that there is a faulty batch and purchasers are being asked to return those affected for replacement.  I'd only purchase one of these at the moment from a retailer who undertook to replace it at once if it turned out to have this fault.

[Ozpeter]

I've finally got to the end of the audio review of the H1 posted on the "BlindCoolTech" site, which was mostly recorded on the H1 itself.  There's some interesting audio comparisons with the H2 (subtle differences, and on the basis of this review the H1 is the winner), and more significantly with the Edirol R09HR.  In that comparison, the reviewer (Neal Ewers) uses a pair of DPA mics on the H1's level 1 (of 100) setting, and then on the R09HR's level 1 setting, normalised later.  In this test, under the conditions at the time, the H1's noise performance is remarkable, and blows the R09HR out of the water.  His comment is "wow - that's amazing".

Now he doesn't say what model the DPAs are (they're being worn binaurally), nor does he precisely set out how the tests were done, and I'm not personally familiar with the mics nor the recorders.  But taken at face value, the test certainly shows that the H1 used with high output mics adds no obvious noise of its own, and in that respect it's completely different from the H2, which has a horribly noisy mic input.  Mr Ewers says the "floor noise" of the H1 is "at or below -90dB".

I'd recommend listening to this review even if you're not planning to by an H1, but if you're interested in being amazed at the performance obtainable from probably the cheapest intended-for-music-recording device on the market.  Wow, we've come a long way in a short time!

http://media.libsyn.com/media/bct/bct1502ZoomH1RecorderReview.mp3 is the link.  The comparison with the R09HR is at 27'10" - just  before that is a sample using Sound Professionals in-ears.  Bear in mind that the review is intended to be of particular interest to people with vision impairments.

[dain45yl]

Yep, they done good on this H1, changed the game getting down to one AA ----- st&@lth scores once again (from behind the three-point line this time)       

[pnoman]

I recently bought a Zoom H1 handheld recorder.

It truly offers tremendous value for the money, and I would likely have kept it for this reason (despite the fact that the handling noise is really high and the stand-mount is just made of plastic and the threads may easily be destroyed). However, as it turned out, my sample with serial number 12xxx suffered from a high current drain when switched off. It consumed 47 mA, which means it will drain a normal Alkaline battery in 2-3 days!

Zoom was quick to respond from their Japan support office and apologized for the problem and asked me to return it for another. It is known problem (likely a failing capacitor), but unfortunately all other Zoom H1 on stock at the dealer had serial numbers lower than 20000, and could also have (or develop?) the problem. I decided to stay away from the H1 for this reason unfortunately, for now at least.

I then refocused my efforts toward the H4n (as the H2 is an older product) — but it was not in stock. So instead, after some further deliberation, I ended up with the Roland R-05 (and not the Edirol R-09HR, mainly as the additional features in the R-09HR were not essential to me and the price was higher).

As this thread is about the Zoom, I won't go into any details of the Roland R-05 here, but just refer to another post I made here on the board (http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=140726.0) that also has a link to my webpage where a longish Roland R-05 noise test is listed, in case anyone is interested.


-- Per.

[fmaderjr]

In that comparison, the reviewer (Neal Ewers) uses a pair of DPA mics on the H1's level 1 (of 100) setting, and then on the R09HR's level 1 setting, normalised later.  In this test, under the conditions at the time, the H1's noise performance is remarkable, and blows the R09HR out of the water.  His comment is "wow - that's amazing".

I have to agree with that, but this test was recording ambient sounds. It looks like, at least with the proper mics, it is outstanding at doing that. It might be a great low cost recorder for nature recordists.

But as an avid Zoom hater, I do suspect that the HR would blow the Zoom out of the water when recording very loud music. Would like to hear a test on that. The Zoom would lose by default if it is subject to the limitations of the H2 and H4 where the ADC comes before the record level control. This can cause a recording of very loud music to distort even when the meters are peaking under 0 dB.

I would steer anyone who likes to record loud music away from it until the above possible problem has been thoroughly tested and reported on.