Zoom H1n

I bought the recorder to record different kinds of sounds indoors and outdoors, which I would continue to use in a DAW later. Already when unpacking one notices that this is a very sensitive device that you do not want to drop out of your hand. It seems that the entire part, including the inside, was made of plastic. The microphone capsules look very cheap and the protection around it pretty fragile. The keys do not make any impression and even the internal thread is made of plastic. The advantage of this cheap production is on the one hand in the price (somewhere you have to save yes) and on the other hand in the weight noticeable. It feels like holding a simple TV remote control in your hand. The disadvantages, however, are that you have to be very careful with the device and that any part in the device is loose and rustling when you shake the recorder.

The key distribution has succeeded quite well. All the important buttons are accessible with the thumb. For the Limiter, Lo Cut (3 gradations), Autolevel and recording quality, there is one button, which is quite convenient. The Limiter and Lo Cut work well as expected. Autolevel, however, is only conditionally usable, since he does not know in some situations if he has noticed a noise and thus unnecessarily loud / quieter from time to time. For my purposes that will probably not, but it will certainly find people who can do something with it. Switching on and off works quite well and relatively fast, although a little slower than its predecessor.

With the PC you can connect the H1n as an audio interface or card reader. The selection on the device display appears as soon as you connect it via USB. Even to use it as a card reader (Win10), you have to install the corresponding ASIO drivers from the Zoom website. The installation of the current firmware as well as the German language went pretty fast and uncomplicated. The installation files included the corresponding PDF files with the short instructions.

Generally, the microphones are pretty weak (not bad). Although they record a lot of ambient noise, but in order to use this for film or music, you have to make the quietly recorded sounds later louder and possibly post-processing / clean. From recording level 5 namely the self-noise is more and more apparent. Recordings from 7 or 8 are actually only useful if you use the H1n as a voice recorder or only records noise that drown out the noise, but this is not the cleanest recording mode. With the Lo Cut you can minimize the inherent noise, but this may lose other frequencies that you might want to hold on. The levels 1 to 5, however, are relatively clean and can be used easily. It is helpful to work with headphones during recording to select the best level. The sound quality is generally satisfactory. Although the heights could be higher, the depths a bit deeper and more present, but even so, you can get a lot out of the raw material during post-processing, without significant quality losses.

Which of course is very annoying that the device strikes at the slightest movement. The problem is due to design and is found in many other recorders. During recording you should hold it with feeling and not move your fingers. In the accessory package APH-1 (n) you get an adapter for the microphone stand. If you use it as a handle, you reduce the unpleasant sounds a little. Be careful, as the adapter is quite small, smooth and slippery. Alternatively, you can take the tripod.
Very positive, I think that you can work without batteries by connecting a power supply or a power bank via USB.

All in all, it is a very useful and versatile recording device. The disadvantages of the device do not outweigh, but bring you to maintain a gentle way and in some situations to make you more thoughtful about the recording, as might be necessary with other higher-quality devices. The price / performance ratio is good. It would be very good if the bag from the accessory package were included. This (or similar) is, in my opinion, a must-buy.