Topic: ZOOM H2

[Roving Sign]

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/H2/

http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1916

[Roving Sign]

interesting, the literature doesnt seem to mention "24 bit" anywhere...just sampling rates. It says "DVD Quality" for 96khz. Does that imply 24 bit?

edit - Samson Lit says 24...

Looks like it has a tripod mount on the base - and is meant to be run upright - it has screens on both sides (like a LD/Side address type mic)

[guysonic]

Maybe H2 is not so much a new design, but more a repackage of most of  H4's electronics circuitry with new microphone processing added to the mix?  I tend to say this as there's the old limitation of 2 GIG SD in this new deck. 

Expected anything really new coming out to take advantage of high capacity of SDHC cards, or so I'm thinking.

If Samson is using the H4's basic circuitry, bench testing should determine if H2 offers refinement over H4's rolled off high frequency response and excessive noise issues that should've been solved with more careful board layout and supply filtering.

[Roving Sign]

Wonder how that works...?

Additionally, you can record 360° in 48kHz/24-bit format which will allow you convert your recordings to Surround 5.1.

= = = =

Looks like a nicer build quality than the H4 - No balanced anything - why assume it's repackaged electronics?

[spyder9]

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.           

[Will_S]

Whatever its faults, the Zoom H4 did in reality record just fine to 4 GB SD cards (never tried SDHC) regardless of what was officially supported, although it did scramble the headers of individual files >2 GB.  Recording multiple <2G files until the card was full, no problem.

And remember that the HF rolloff of the H4 seemed to vary by unit, with Chris Church's (a later production model?) nearly flat.

That said you do have to be suspicious whenever a manufacturer tries to stuff so many features into something so small, for so cheap.  The H2 seems similarly too good to be true.

[pmonk66]

Why do they make it look like a microphone

[tonyvt]

That sucker is cheap at under 2 bills.

[Gutbucket]

4 channnel recording only available using the (3?) internal mics?