here's a comparative post on various recorders at the Naturerecordists group :
I'm surprised that this comparison hasn't given rise to any comment on that group. I found it extremely interesting. I've listened repeatedly using headphones.
Things I notice -
- The M10's poor stereo image makes it virtually impossible to make out the very distant singing of the blackbird (??) to the left of the soundstage.
- The D50 isn't much better in terms of stereo image but sounds rather thinner (less at the bottom)
- In the LS7 segment you now hear that blackbird to the left and there's more low frequencies, though the You Tube spectral display seems to show more noise
- The R05 is perhaps inferior to the LS7 and again the spectral display seems to show noise
- The Zoom H1 has a good stereo image and considerably more energy in the very lowest frequencies, though this could be slight wind noise, and the spectral display implies that it has no more noise than the Sony recorders.
Overall, with caveat that it seems to be more prone to wind noise, the humble H1 seems to come out very well in this test in terms of bang for buck.