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Audio Recorder Question

Does anyone have experience with the Zoom H4N? I'm looking at a few different recorders and have heard some positive things about this little guy. Thanks in advance.
 
I'm not a fan of the H4n, but for $300 it isn't bad. My complaints are that the preamps are a little hissy, there are no manual level or gain controls, and if you use it to supply phantom power it eats batteries like crazy.
 
Not a sound guy, they will likely chime in. It is what it is, a $300 field recorder. If that's what you have to spend, it's an option you can make work. The mini jacks mean adapters though, and that usually means line noise.
 
Please note, many of the complaints about the H4n actually regard the H4. The new current model, the H4n, has a different preamp than what the H4 used and is vastly improved.

I'm a user of the H4n. And for the kind of budget that affords one, they are fantastic.

It doesn't use mini-jacks; it features 2 XLR inputs (or two 1/4" inputs) for great balanced sound.

The H4 was notorious for eating batteries but the new H4n is VASTLY improved...we used both for a shoot in January, two 7 hour days. Identical mics (phantom powered), identical hours. Changed the batteries in the H4 six times. Changed the batteries in the H4n once, and that was only for safety...we could have made it without changing them at all. So the "battery eater" scarlet letter is worn by the original H4, not not the H4n.

In addition to auto-level, which can be handy for run-and-gun, the new model features a dedicated manual REC level control.
 
I'm still waiting for my H4n to arrive in the mail (groan). There are lots of examples on the web between the H4n and other recorders, however my choice came down to noise comparison, features and price.

Noise - H4n is a big improvement over H4 and other recorders in that price range. Yes there still is hiss but from my research via web examples, I felt it was the least distracting of the bunch. Some other systems did perform better, but I feel they lacked features I wanted and I felt I could live with the lower quality of sound for those features; you might feel different.

Features - The H4n has a lot of fancy features (I read the most of the manual). Yes its a complex device but there isn't much it can do that the bigger more expensive devices could do (unless you need 4 XLR jacks, etc); for me the 1/4" Balanced Jacks are great as all my current mics currently use that (high fidelity shotgun, high fidelity lav). Things like juice link etc for HDSLR sounded better, but its not a digital recorder.

Price - There are easier nicer audio recorders for around $400-500 dollars. However that is almost twice the cost of the H4n and at the end of the day they don't add any additional features I was going to use. Nicer sound yes, but do they allow you to do something the H4n can't, mostly no (for me anyway). I put that money towards a better XLR shotgun mic which will improve my audio far more than a better recorder at this point.

Gripes - Although I haven't one in my hand, my one issue is there is no cage on the onboard mics. So once I get one I'll do some thick wire bending and build it a small cage so that they don't get whacked (not that I plan on hitting this device, but I've heard the mics are easily damaged).
 
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On the H4n, are you planning on recording line level signals from a mixer or using the H4n to preamp your mics?

Everyone will laugh, but I use the H2 with great results. The pre-amps on the H2 are as crappy and hissy as the pre-amps on the H4, but there is nothing wrong with the line level inputs and converters. I feed the line-in of the H2 with a line level signal from an SD302 mixer. I record the same signal to camera and the H2 recording is always better than the camera recording (various Sonys, Canons, Panasonics, etc. ).

The H2 looks like a piece of cheap plastic crap, but I have beaten the snot out of it and it is still sturdy and solid (three features, a bunch of shorts and trailers).

I also tried a friend's H4n for a day. Very nice. The pre-amps are indeed HUGELY improved over the H2 and H4. Didn't sound bad using mics to pre-amps. Physically much more solid than the H2 and H4. I considered buying one, but using line level signals actually seemed a little more noodly than the H2 (setting levels and inputs). I really liked it though. For the price, you will definitely get your money's worth.

I'm not sure I would use one of these for recording nature sounds at 500 yds, but the noise on these inexpensive recorders is far below the ambient noise on most film locations (ignoring you lucky people with gazillion dollar sound stages).
 
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