Topic: Zoom F8

[Jonmac]

I can confirm the Tekkeon adapter works too, I put the number of the adapter earlier in the thread.

A couple more items of note this morning before I finish packing.

I don't have a power cable with a hirose connector yet, but late last night I checked the generic connectors that came with my Tekkeon 3300 batteries and one of those connectors fits the 12V power input on the back of the F8 perfectly.  The connector on the unit is recessed and the adaptaplug connectors are right angle, so at first I didn't think the plugs would fit, but when inserted, the right angle actually fits perfectly snug into the socket while also hugging the back of the unit close enough that when it's sitting in the bottom on the bag there's absolutely no concern with the cable coming out of the bottom of the unit into the bottom of your bag.  I'm not 100% at this point, but I doubt I'm going to need to concern myself about getting a cable with a hirose connector made.  I know not everyone has these generic Tekkeon connectors laying around, but it's a happy coincidence for me.

The compartment for the batteries is nicely designed.  First of all, the door providing access is a metal hinged door held in place with a thumbscrew.  There's a solid feel and design all the way around with the access door...gives the feel that it's designed to last.  Swinging the door open provides access to a plastic battery tray.  The tray hold 8s AA batteries and is a unique and/or proprietary design.  It has a pull tab on the end for easily pulling the tray out.  Each side of the tray has a hinged cover that snap in place so that once the batteries are in place, they'll stay in place.  Nice feature so that if you have a tray in the bottom on your gear bag, batteries won't fall out of the sled.  Each side of the sled has a retained ribbon so that extraction of the batteries is simply a tug on the ribbon.  While the tray looks as sturdy as your typical plastic battery tray, it's plastic.  I can see over time these trays being damaged or getting lost.  Since it's a special design, Zoom needs to make available the purchase of spares.  Besides having backups for replacement, it would also be nice to have spare packs ready to go in case you're in the middle of a show and you need to change AAs quickly.  The bottom line though is that its a nicely designed tray.

Have you tried unplugging the external battery to see if the F8 reverts to the internal batteries without a glitch ?.

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I have run my Hirose attached external NP-1 12V battery down and it seamlessly switched power over to the internal AA batteries.

[Ozpeter]

Reading all this gives me an ache in the wallet that no amount of analgesia will cure, but my only justification for buying one would simply be that I WANT ONE!!!    Thanks for the great review-in-progress and I'm highly impressed with the DIY case.

[acidjack]

Just one thing to add, Steve, please do start a new thread for the extensive review -- it'll be easier for people to find and read that way.

Sounds intriguing, this Zoom F8.... fingers crossed.... though I still share DF's concerns, from what I've heard the newer Zoom units are somewhat better than the ones that give them a bad reputation around here (the H2 and H4N mainly).

[fmaderjr]

Sounds intriguing, this Zoom F8.... fingers crossed.... though I still share DF's concerns, from what I've heard the newer Zoom units are somewhat better than the ones that give them a bad reputation around here (the H2 and H4N mainly).

The Zoom H4 was the worst recorder I could possibly have started with, although the internal mics weren't bad.

The Zoom H6, however, is quite good and very versatile. I read a great review of it here, gave it a try, and like it very much. I assume the F8 will be a great recorder with tremendous bang for the buck, though I won't be needing one myself as 4 channels are usually enough for me.

[stevetoney]

I will def be starting a new thread.  These are of course my initial thoughts and I'll be copying alot of this over for sure.

Shocking but there's cell phone coverage at this festival.

I got a chance to use the f8 for five or six hours last night and check preamps against my psp3. 
a) this thing is no toy.
b) preamp sound is really good.  Seriously not much difference between the sound I'm getting from psp3.  This is first impression though from doing a vs b of the sets i recorded last night.  I listened for an hour this am in the car so it was a very non controlled listen.
c) clearly the comments the early film guys were making about the headphone amp were coming from a different place than i am.  For monitoring of live music, the headphone amp is as good as anyone would want. I have nothing negative to say about it right now.

Metering res is on par with the lights of a 7xx.  As far as i can tell, theres no digital peak read out to accompany the level bars.  However, the resolution on the bars is really good with more bars as peaks approach 0db and lots of bars between -6db and 0db.  There is a setting that changes the level indicator to a solid line instead of bars.  I haven't tried that yet. 

The Bluetooth app is fairly easy to use but probably a little wonky for doing any serious controlling on an iPhone.  I imagine that on an ipad where everything is enlarged on the device touchscreen this comment is probably n/a.  Anyway, setting levels on my iPhone was ok to do but requires a steady finger...very sensitive and easy to overshoot, thus the wonky comment.  It's great for monitoring though.  One you're finished monitoring, it's probably best practice to minimize the app on your device to prevent accidental 'butt dialing' that might result in hitting the stop record button.  On my iPhone5 i have a habit of clicking the power button to turn the screen of my phone off to conserve power.  When i do that the app disconnects from the f8.  It's no problem to reconnect, though though one time i couldn't reconnect after recording had started.  I'll have to check that some more to see if that's a chronic issue.  Once the unit is in record mode you can't start or restart Bluetooth until you stop recording.  However, you can disable Bluetooth any time.  Probably good to do once you lose connection while recording in order to save power.  The range is about 40 feet unimpeded.  I still need to check how far away i can get if it's crowded.

[vegeta_ban]

I can confirm the Tekkeon adapter works too, I put the number of the adapter earlier in the thread.

A couple more items of note this morning before I finish packing.

I don't have a power cable with a hirose connector yet, but late last night I checked the generic connectors that came with my Tekkeon 3300 batteries and one of those connectors fits the 12V power input on the back of the F8 perfectly.  The connector on the unit is recessed and the adaptaplug connectors are right angle, so at first I didn't think the plugs would fit, but when inserted, the right angle actually fits perfectly snug into the socket while also hugging the back of the unit close enough that when it's sitting in the bottom on the bag there's absolutely no concern with the cable coming out of the bottom of the unit into the bottom of your bag.  I'm not 100% at this point, but I doubt I'm going to need to concern myself about getting a cable with a hirose connector made.  I know not everyone has these generic Tekkeon connectors laying around, but it's a happy coincidence for me.

The compartment for the batteries is nicely designed.  First of all, the door providing access is a metal hinged door held in place with a thumbscrew.  There's a solid feel and design all the way around with the access door...gives the feel that it's designed to last.  Swinging the door open provides access to a plastic battery tray.  The tray hold 8s AA batteries and is a unique and/or proprietary design.  It has a pull tab on the end for easily pulling the tray out.  Each side of the tray has a hinged cover that snap in place so that once the batteries are in place, they'll stay in place.  Nice feature so that if you have a tray in the bottom on your gear bag, batteries won't fall out of the sled.  Each side of the sled has a retained ribbon so that extraction of the batteries is simply a tug on the ribbon.  While the tray looks as sturdy as your typical plastic battery tray, it's plastic.  I can see over time these trays being damaged or getting lost.  Since it's a special design, Zoom needs to make available the purchase of spares.  Besides having backups for replacement, it would also be nice to have spare packs ready to go in case you're in the middle of a show and you need to change AAs quickly.  The bottom line though is that its a nicely designed tray.

Have you tried unplugging the external battery to see if the F8 reverts to the internal batteries without a glitch ?.

Yes, no issues.

[2manyrocks]

How responsive is the Bluetooth at 40 feet?  Are you seeing any lag?

[Sonus Captor]

Hi Steve,

many thanks for the info on the F8.

Did you have any issues with the the headphone output voltage/power of the F8 beeing too low? Many affordable recorders have that problem.

For me the low phone output power/voltage of my Tascam DR-70 (apart from that a very good device) is a real issue. I use a Sennheiser HD-25 for live monitoring and an AKG K702 for checking the recording later. With the Sennheiser the volume is just okay but with the AKG it is certainly too low. The fact that you usually leave 12-16dB of headroom when recording makes the unnormalised file a lot quieter. In addition, quite a few high quality headphones have a lowish sensitivity. First I thought the output power (2x 20mW) is simply too low, but when I played a normalised file on the DR-70 the volume level of the AKG was okay. The phone output stage just doesn't have enough gain. Does the F8 have a more powerful phone output?

Cheers,

S.C.

[stevetoney]

How responsive is the Bluetooth at 40 feet?  Are you seeing any lag?

Very little lag at all...almost impeceptible.  Last night i strolled away from my bag in a crowd and lost connection around 15 or 20 feet.

I used the app some more last night.  The drop i experienced the night before was user error.  As long as you keep the app active on your phone it will disconnect from the f8 when you minimize the app but then when you call the app up again it will reconnect every time.  However, if you close the app down completely on your iphone, you can't reconnect without first stopping the recording.  To activate Bluetooth you press and hold the menu button for a couple of seconds.

[stevetoney]

Hi Steve,

many thanks for the info on the F8.

Did you have any issues with the the headphone output voltage/power of the F8 beeing too low? Many affordable recorders have that problem.

For me the low phone output power/voltage of my Tascam DR-70 (apart from that a very good device) is a real issue. I use a Sennheiser HD-25 for live monitoring and an AKG K702 for checking the recording later. With the Sennheiser the volume is just okay but with the AKG it is certainly too low. The fact that you usually leave 12-16dB of headroom when recording makes the unnormalised file a lot quieter. In addition, quite a few high quality headphones have a lowish sensitivity. First I thought the output power (2x 20mW) is simply too low, but when I played a normalised file on the DR-70 the volume level of the AKG was okay. The phone output stage just doesn't have enough gain. Does the F8 have a more powerful phone output?

Cheers,

S.C.

There's lots of flexibility available for monitoring.  I'm still learning how to use it best but I've discovered some interesting things for my own use.  For example, you can set the headphones to monitor the summed output channels post fader.  So what i did last night was set my input levels so they were peaking at around -12db.  That means the recording on my sd cards is peaking at minus twelve. Once i was happy with my input levels, I set the headphone up to add 12db of gain post fader.  So even though i was recording at -12db, I was monitoring at 0db.  I'm only using two input channels right now so with exception of the gain, my inputs and outputs are the same.

The headphone amp has its own volume knob (located directly below the menu button) but with the vol knob turned all the way up and monitoring output channels at 0db, the sound from the headphones is LOUD.  I could literally feel the low end rumbling in my headphones.

I'm monitoring with audiotechnica ATH-M50.

[Sonus Captor]

Hi Steve,

it's good to hear that the headphone output of the F8 has enough juice. Great!

Many thanks,

S.C.

[voltronic]

Can the F8 be powered from the miniUSB plug, or just the hirose and barrel connectors?  The promo material doesn't mention the USB in powering options.  The only reason I ask is that many here would use USB packs, but needing the hirose would require a more expensive custom cable.

[stevetoney]

Can the F8 be powered from the miniUSB plug, or just the hirose and barrel connectors?  The promo material doesn't mention the USB in powering options.  The only reason I ask is that many here would use USB packs, but needing the hirose would require a more expensive custom cable.

The voltage required off the hirose for this is 9V -16V and the manual doesn't say anything about powering from the usb (which has a 5V spec) so I have to assume the usb is for file transfer only.

[voltronic]

Can the F8 be powered from the miniUSB plug, or just the hirose and barrel connectors?  The promo material doesn't mention the USB in powering options.  The only reason I ask is that many here would use USB packs, but needing the hirose would require a more expensive custom cable.

The voltage required off the hirose for this is 9V -16V and the manual doesn't say anything about powering from the usb (which has a 5V spec) so I have to assume the usb is for file transfer only.

Got it.  So no powering off those cheap USB batteries at all, even with the proper adapter.  Have you found success with any particular external battery?