By the way... I DID open up your sample in Audacity and look at it before I commented the first time. The quiet parts of your sample are clear and the loud parts are all "smooshed together" for lack of a proper term. Heavily compressed is probably a good term.
The H2 has an AGC/Compressor/limiter option. I suspect that was on. If you crank the gain with that turned on, that can lead to that sort of compression. I did that once when I first got my R4... you crank the gain to bring up the meters, but the meters don't climb, so you are just adding a ton of compression. Turn that off, and leave it off.