DO NOT BUY THE ZOOM H1 ESSENTIAL!

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[dvs]

As an avid field recordist I gotta say this review is not that accurate. Any handheld would make that noise if you handled it like that and make pops like that if you talked into it without a dead cat or foam.

[Noisavant]

It's you making the noise and why do you record with usb cable connected and handheld? you are making cable noise so don`t blame the recorder for your faulty handling!

[goonsquadBLAH]

Other videos are posting sound examples that sound good in my opinion. Users seems happy with it. Not sure this ones so negative. User error maybe

[dfcx]

All the mentioned negatives apply to the old H1n as well, without a side-by-side I can't tell if the problems are worse on the new one or not.

[Ozpeter]

I suspect the handling noise was partly related to the cable attached to the device. I'm surprised you didn't try it without. As for self noise, on forums I follow the specs caused concern right away - the preamps are not the world's best noise-wise. But at this price, should you really expect them to be? I believe that we will now find that all such recorders will be released with 32 bit float, same way as all recorders suddenly did 24/96 back in the day. It would be unwise to think that they will all have stunning performance. 32 bit float can be a great accompaniment to a great preamp. But it can also simply provide the means to not bother with level setting. The noise performance wouldn't be any different with 24/96. Don't go by the 32 bit float bit, go by the price.

[iancraig]

A low level signal with microphone self-noise, (dead cheap mics on the h1e I presume at that price), room sound, and/or outside noise leakage into the studio space just means you can boost those unwanted sounds up to an intolerable level. 32 bit isn’t a fix for that. Plus the cheap preamp…..

Actually, turning the volume down to more ‘like’ a whisper relative to your speech level does take the noise down significantly rather than normalising up to max and it sounds more natural at a lower volume.

Speaking directly into condenser mics will always pop like mad. I would use a foamie indoors to do that with any mic.

I guess you get what you pay for shows here in that casing. I was hoping that its odd shape was to help stop the case creaking. However, two mics and a recorder at less than $100 (is it?) isn’t that bad.

Looking forward to H4e.

[amanieux]

what is your rec for a sub $100 audio recorder that has better noise floor than h1 essential ? thanks

[kyleethekelt]

Kia ora. As a blind user this is an interesting review. I wonder whether Rycote will come out with a set of accessories as they have in the past? That might solve the appalling plosives. However, if I were to buy this I'd stick a decent lav on the end of it because it would be used as accessible, independent audio for video. Shame about the preamps. Zoom hasn't exactly been known for the best ones in town and this seems like a lost opportunity on their part, particularly as Samuel Green of Zoom US is on record as saying that they were upgraded to support the 32-bit. Cheers for the heads-up. Ngā mihi.

[dozzaz]

From my understanding, 32 bit float does not mean clean audio at any gain. It is helpful when source is loud or can bring bursts of loud sounds unexpectedly - there is more headroom to accommodate that extra dynamic range. But the preamp and microphones are a real bottleneck, as you've seen in ASMR test, and there is nothing wrong about it - device is designed for loud sources. If you make a quiet source loud, you will always bring the noise floor up, in this case, floor is not that low to begin with. Note that there are no real 32 bit preamp in these devices, they use staged multi-preamp structure, like multiple preamps set at different gain settings. Normalization process is actually just shifting everything up, throwing away unused dynamic range at the higher range. So it's really a problem of preamp and mic self-noises, not the recorder part

[NightfallSentinel]

I don't mind the light plastic, because it makes the thing very light and can be worn or in a pocket without sagging your clothes. LO-CUT (high pass filter) mitigates the handling noise somewhat. It's ok for the price. I do wish they made a more premium variant in this format without compromises, I'd pay double for that.

[cmd_f]

Was very glad to see them including speech output on these units. More products in general should have screen readers. It's a huge barrier for blind peeps if all the new touch screen tech so obviously lacks this.

The handling noise is aweful, but I owned the H1 for many years and just mounted it and walked away. Kinda defeats the portable thing though, true.
I'm thinking about the h4Essential. H1 is a little too skimpy for my needs.
cheers

[simonegulli]

what if you use the h1 essential with an external microphone?

[sunjamrblues]

I bought one recently. I take it out into nature, lay it down about an arm's length away, and start playing my acoustic guitar. It works perfectly, and that's all I need. I go back to my music studio and download it into Logic Pro. That works perfectly also, and the audio quality is good. I only need one channel, because I'm the only one playing. So multi-channel inputs would be a total waste for me.

[roxics]

I have a couple of the original H1 devices that I've been using for years as lav mic recorders for video interviews. So I rarely use the onboard mics. In fact one of them fell out in a parking lot years ago during a downpour and I only realized a half hour later. Since then the onboard mics don't work well, but no matter, the mic input has worked fine.

I assume this thing has a hold switch on it right? I've not seen anyone mention that. I never bought the H1N because of the volume knob. Last thing you want is someone throwing this in their pocket with the lav on and the levels changing on you because they turn the knob. Glad to see they nixed the knob on this one.

I have heard that this one does not have manual gain control at all. I don't know how much that would be an issue with 32bit float. Curious to know about that. I'm also not a fan of the two AAA batteries (why has multiple AAA become all the rage with new electronics over single AA?) this things needs, but that's still better than having a built-in li-Ion battery like all these new wireless lav mics have. Whereas the original H1 only takes one AA battery. Which is nice. I also like the 1TB SD card option on this one. It's hard to find lower capacity micro SD cards these days.

I realize I'm kind of old school since a lot of video creators have switched to wireless lav mics these days. I probably should too, but I'm still using my zoom H1 recorders because the system works. So it's been one of those if it ain't broke don't fix it problems. Really all Zoom needs to do is just rerelease the original H1 with 32bit and expanded SD storage and I think everyone would be thrilled. But it seems they keep trying to reinvent the wheel.

[glennmercer]

Big fan of your reviews, but I think you may have missed an important aspect, market, for these H1 "handheld" recorders in your review... filmmakers use them as body pack recorders with a lavalier mic. I know you're going to say... get the F2, but the H1 does offer some added benefits for a no/low budget filmmaker. Anyway, I finally subscribed to your channel, thanks for the thorough reviews. I always check your channel when I'm looking at new equipment.

[EricCarter]

4:30 - I would disagree with you on this being "unusable" if your holding it. I recorded my entire review for the recent Snow White movie using this microphone and I was walking around and holding it the entire time. And the audio was VERY useful in the end and sounded great in the final video.

[AskJoe]

I've got a ton of Zooms, including the "Handy / H" Series going way back to the original H1 and H4n to the newer H1n, H5, and H6 and I've never really considered any of them to be "Handheld", because all the 1 series had such bad handling noise.

Most of the time, I used the H1 series as just a recorder to plug lav mics into, so although I agree the new Essential H1 is probably just as bad as a handheld as the older H1 models, (the original H1 still probably worst I've ever had), it could still be a low cost 32-bit body pack to record from a lav for example. The downside is you still need to buy a good lav mic, bringing it up to the price of the F2, which has a decent included mic.

[skyace]

Appreciate the review but can you suggest an alternative in this price range and small form factor? I'm assuming it's better than the original h1n in some ways. Fully expecting it to have a lot of shortcomings but should still have a place and purpose.

[Ozpeter]

Statement received from Zoom USA -

"Single A/D converters are used on the H1essential and H2essential as well as any other input that is not specified to have dual A/D converters. The microphones on each product have a Max SPL Limit. Within that SPL Limit, the recorder is able to capture the audio in full clarity without having to set gain."

So this is not a dual ADC device where the loud and quiet parts of the signal are separately encoded and output to a 32 bit float file. It is a device where its single 24 bit ADC outputs 24 bits into a 32 bit float file without adding to the dynamic range captured.

[jochisfx]

I wish they would just add 32bit as a basic feature instead of using it as a marketing gimmick while not upgrading the 2014 pre-amps / capsules. I just bought the H1e and will try it out myself, most of the negatives mentioned (handling noise, EIN of 120) are present on the H1n and I still think it's great to have in my bag wherever I go. I really wanted it to be less noisy than the H1n but oh well.

I look forward to the review of the H4e! (I think I already know the verdict though)