Zoom H4n Handy Recorder Kit with 8GB SD Card and Remote Control

The H4n is a pretty marvelous little device. I use it mostly for location sound recording for video production.

The functionality is pretty great. Menus are intuitively laid out, and settings are quick and easy to access and change.

The sound of the onboard mics is pretty killer. The mic pres for external mics are not super great (not garbage either though), but if you run through a field mixer or something with decent pres (and hopefully decent compressors and limiters), it helps a lot, and you can get great sound.

You can't record the two input channels to seperate mono tracks, or set the input levels individually when using them for field recording, but the former issue is easy enough to fix in post, and as for the latter, see the previous paragraph.

If you just want to throw something up and hit record, this thing is great. Though, if that's your main objective, I would honestly recommend the H2 instead.

The build on this is decent, but the battery cover is a little flimsy, and I've broken the closure tooth off before, just by exposing it to the rigors of field work.

All and all, this is the device I would recommend to anyone in production with a limited budget. You can get better, but the jump in price for noticeably better performance is practically (not literally) exponential.

The little remote included in this kit is SUPER handy. And to couple that with an 8 gig SDHC card for $20 is a killer deal.

I brought this so that I can attach two phantom power mics to it and simultaneously use the onboard mics. The onboard mics sounded great; however, when I connected the other two mics - one of them would only record on the left speaker and the other would only record on the right speaker. I was trying to get three separate stereo signals but couldn't do that with this product. I had to return it because the inputs was the real reason I got it.

Its a good recorder. I gave it 4 stars because the external microphone jack shuts off the built in microphones. I have had to buy adapters to get my external microphone to go in the mic jacks on the bottom.

Pros: Easy To Use, Reliable Performance, Large Capacity, Writes/Reads fast, Great ValueBest Uses: Video stereo recording, Field recording, Live multitrack recordingDescribe Yourself: Semi ProWas this a gift?: NoBottom Line:Yes, I would recommend this to a friendFirst off - I am an H4 zoom user for going on 4 years. I loved it. The longer I owned it the better I knew how to tweak the settings to just walk into the band room, Put the recorder down and get a great recording, as perfect as you can get without mic'ing every speaker. The difference was NOT night and day. It would give you a great live recording. That said it did have it's drawbacks:
No direct control of recording level's (auto did a good job) but on the new you manually set the peak right off- Very easy!
Lo-cut always had to be set high. On the H4n it handles the Low's better.
h4 menu system was a little hard to jump through in a pinch, even though I new it really well, the h4n is a lot quicker to reference.
Here is a quick punch list
*Better Mic's
*Better recording input (peak)
*Larger clear Meter
*Punch in Punch out (Mark) like the big multitrack's use
*better effects
*Better battery life
*Better firmware then the old - works with windows 7
*Better card slot / battery slot
*Built in Mic/screw slot
*Mic stand adapter doubles as a short stand due to the angle.
*Remote!!!
*seems more durable
*Better menu system Kind of like windows folder hirarchy
*Single head phone output with larger range
*Built in speaker
*Capability of using 2 Mic's + onboard mic's for rounder sound and still utilize stereo

I have not yet found any faults of this thing. It is a great improvement!! I am very satisfied with it!

Accessories I Recommend:
•Remote
•8GB card
Similar Products I Own:
•H4
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The H4n is best with these accessories, and the package is a great price

A decent field recorder, but with one fatal flaw: the fact that the input levels are slaved together, have no physical controls, and cannot be separated (!!!) means the usefulness of this unit is limited to 2-track stereo music recording, or recording from the outputs of a mixer, NOT for two separate mics. Being unable to control the gain of two mics separately makes it useless for anything except music, especially useless for video production.

Great over all recording device for the money, with one slight problem. The door for the SD card is flimsy and can actually eject the card if pressed too hard while in the closed position. This, of course, is a minor problem because doing this while the recorder is recording is not the easiest thing to accomplish, but it is possible when gripping on too tight!