Zoom H2n Handy Recorder

I've been using this model's predecessor, the H2, for about ten years, and I was sceptical about whether I needed to upgrade. That was, until the H2N arrived. It's SO MUCH BETTER. It's easier to use, the display is actually legible, the menus have been improved and it's got a built-in speaker now. More than that, the M/S mics with the variable width are brilliant, the battery life is better, and it sounds absolutely great. If you mainly record in stereo or mono, if you don't need to plug in loads of external mics (do you, really?) and if you enjoy making fantastic-sounding recordings that exceed broadcast quality, buy an H2N. It's brilliant value, and it beats the hell out of trying to record onto your phone for quality, flexibility, features and convenience. Very ... MoreI've been using this model's predecessor, the H2, for about ten years, and I was sceptical about whether I needed to upgrade. That was, until the H2N arrived. It's SO MUCH BETTER. It's easier to use, the display is actually legible, the menus have been improved and it's got a built-in speaker now. More than that, the M/S mics with the variable width are brilliant, the battery life is better, and it sounds absolutely great. If you mainly record in stereo or mono, if you don't need to plug in loads of external mics (do you, really?) and if you enjoy making fantastic-sounding recordings that exceed broadcast quality, buy an H2N. It's brilliant value, and it beats the hell out of trying to record onto your phone for quality, flexibility, features and convenience. Very highly recommended!

A

Very good recorder. It was bought for a musician's birthday present. Giver pleased with price, packaging, delivery and communication. Recipient pleased with quality and ease of use of recorder, and happy to have the accessory pack (extra charge) (case, mains adapter, tripod, mic stand adapter, + other less vital stuff). It was also in stock UK when many other online retailers were out of stock, and a lengthy delivery time was expected. Make of that what you will!And we will see how much it eats batteries when the mains adapter cannot be used. Also whether rechargeable batteries will work satisfactorily. But the Zoom H2N is a very good piece of kit.

Defies Gravity!

It is hard to find a single fault here. I thought I was going to fault it for being a little cheapy feeling, but Sunday night at the club we play at, I went to take it out of my gig bag and the H2n took a tumble across the barroom floor. I thought for sure it would be damaged in some way, but literally not A mark on it! Works perfectly. Now let's get into how amazing it sounds. We used it the first night live in rehearsal, no PA, no vocal mics, and you can hear every word with live drums, a bass amp, 2 guitar amps. Using the 5 channel to 2 channel setting, you can clearly hear the placement of instruments in the room. Truly incredible fidelity from such a tiny little recorder. Put it in 24/48 and add a limiter and wow, it really overperforms beyond any reasonable ... MoreIt is hard to find a single fault here. I thought I was going to fault it for being a little cheapy feeling, but Sunday night at the club we play at, I went to take it out of my gig bag and the H2n took a tumble across the barroom floor. I thought for sure it would be damaged in some way, but literally not A mark on it! Works perfectly. Now let's get into how amazing it sounds. We used it the first night live in rehearsal, no PA, no vocal mics, and you can hear every word with live drums, a bass amp, 2 guitar amps. Using the 5 channel to 2 channel setting, you can clearly hear the placement of instruments in the room. Truly incredible fidelity from such a tiny little recorder. Put it in 24/48 and add a limiter and wow, it really overperforms beyond any reasonable expectations. To my knowledge there is nothing else out there at any price that even comes close and I have used my fair share of portable recorders over the years.

One of the greatest purchases I ever made

I don't think I have enough room to detail how many things I like about this device. It's absolutely perfect. I use it for recording, playing, and practicing my guitar and other acoustic instruments. What I like about it is that I can listen to something like a backing track (with adjustable speed) as I monitor myself playing at the same time with headphones. Which makes it really great for practicing. I also use it as an acoustic microphone in a live setup that sometimes I record. My only wish: if it had some effects on input like reverb, delay (in addition to its compressor, limiter, etc). But maybe that's asking too much. I usually connect some effect pedals after it but I'd rather have them built in. But in any case, it's one of the most useful devices I own and ... MoreI don't think I have enough room to detail how many things I like about this device. It's absolutely perfect. I use it for recording, playing, and practicing my guitar and other acoustic instruments. What I like about it is that I can listen to something like a backing track (with adjustable speed) as I monitor myself playing at the same time with headphones. Which makes it really great for practicing. I also use it as an acoustic microphone in a live setup that sometimes I record. My only wish: if it had some effects on input like reverb, delay (in addition to its compressor, limiter, etc). But maybe that's asking too much. I usually connect some effect pedals after it but I'd rather have them built in. But in any case, it's one of the most useful devices I own and I almost use it daily. Sound quality is superb.

Review of Zoom H2n Portable Recorder

Good design. Compact, attractive digital recording device. I previously had Tascam DR-07 and Tascam DR-05X. Wasn’t at all happy with the display of the latter, nor the build quality and sold it on eBay without even trying it out. This Zoom device was definitely of better quality and nicer to use even if the price is somewhat high.

This is a very handy and useful voice recorder. The sound quality is excellent for voice recording.

I use this recorder for recording voice, like interviews and verbal presentations. When I am making a video recording of a town hall meeting with my camcorder up front to record the speakers and their talk, I also have the H2N recorder placed at the back of the room to pick up the voice recordings from attendees in the back of the room during the question and answer sessions. With the two sound tracks, one from the camcorder and one from the H2N I get a pretty good video and sound recording of the town hall meeting. I do the video and sound editing with Apple's iMovie. It is of course not a professional job but it does the job. I really enjoy using the H2N voice recorder. My recordings are usually under an hour but some go over maybe 15 or 20 minus occasionally. ... MoreI use this recorder for recording voice, like interviews and verbal presentations. When I am making a video recording of a town hall meeting with my camcorder up front to record the speakers and their talk, I also have the H2N recorder placed at the back of the room to pick up the voice recordings from attendees in the back of the room during the question and answer sessions. With the two sound tracks, one from the camcorder and one from the H2N I get a pretty good video and sound recording of the town hall meeting. I do the video and sound editing with Apple's iMovie. It is of course not a professional job but it does the job. I really enjoy using the H2N voice recorder. My recordings are usually under an hour but some go over maybe 15 or 20 minus occasionally. Battery life is really good and it uses AA batteries that are relatively inexpensive and easy to keep on hand. That's it, I'm done.

Very Capable and Excellent Value for Money.

I bought this to give me some flexibility when recording ambient (background) clips. I already have a field recorder and a selection of boom/shotgun mics for main sounds and dialogue, but needed something to round out the capabilities. This is excellent at that job. It is prone to handling noise but if you can put it on a tripod, or, a padded handle (One of those snakey flexible mini tripods with pipe insulation foam taped around it is perfect) as I have done it is brilliant. The adjustable cardioid pattern is very useful because it allows you to cover the whole range from a solo sound source with relatively minimal surrounding sounds, to a whole choir in either mono or stereo when the need arises. One of the best features is the size of the unit. It will fit in a ... MoreI bought this to give me some flexibility when recording ambient (background) clips. I already have a field recorder and a selection of boom/shotgun mics for main sounds and dialogue, but needed something to round out the capabilities. This is excellent at that job. It is prone to handling noise but if you can put it on a tripod, or, a padded handle (One of those snakey flexible mini tripods with pipe insulation foam taped around it is perfect) as I have done it is brilliant. The adjustable cardioid pattern is very useful because it allows you to cover the whole range from a solo sound source with relatively minimal surrounding sounds, to a whole choir in either mono or stereo when the need arises. One of the best features is the size of the unit. It will fit in a pocket for run and gun situations, but I have found it also fits perfectly in one of the small zip up cases you can get very cheaply for compact cameras. This gives an added bonus of somewhere to store spare SD cards, batteries and even in-ear headphones. It will also act as an interface and/or pre-amp, so you can plug an external mic such as a lavalier into it and run straight into the camera, phone or PC to give a much better quality recording.

Worked for my needs

After having tried the Zoom product for podcasts, I found this microphone and recorder to be perfect for what I needed. It does what I hoped the other product would do. It can take line in from a synth and record it and has a wonderful microphone and can plug in live into a computer through USB. It does seem to only do microphone or voice recording, however, not both at the same time. The manual is okay, but it is less detailed than I wanted it to be. I am not quite sure if I could pull off both keyboard input and microphone input at the same time, unless I ran the keyboard through a speaker and recorded both keyboard and voice with the microphone. I do like the simplicity of this unit.

[Rewarded Review] Excellent Mic. Love it!

Can't say enough of this mic. It is perfect. Excellent recording quality, channels available (up to 4). Very compact with the convenient feature of SD Card. Can connect to an external mic and it serves as a recorder. The output is perfect to monitor recording with headphones. All controls of gain, input, metadata, recording format are there. Playback function to hear all recordings without the need of connecting or exporting the recordings to the computer. I have recorded voice overs in my own apartment with the mic on XY setting and it isolates much of the surrounding noises. It is perfect!