ZOOM H1 XLR vs ZOOM F3 Audio Recorders

In this episode we take a look at and a listen to the new ZOOM H1 XLR audio recorder. We listen to the sound quality, test all the most important features, measure its sample noise floor, and I give my recommendations on whether to buy this or a different recorder instead, like the ZOOM F3.

Some of my other studio gear:

Copyright 2024, Curtis Judd

#ZOOM #H1XLR

Index
00:00 Please buy my courses!
00:31 Turn off Stable Volume!
00:44 Price point
01:00 Specs & features
02:10 Voice accessibility
02:20 Powering options
02:46 Recording media
02:50 Audio interface functionality
03:08 RF shielding
03:28 32-bit float
03:48 Preamps & sound quality
05:06 Room noise vs self noise
05:25 No gain setting!
06:02 Tiny screen
06:17 Built-in speaker
06:35 Headphone amp
06:46 Build quality
06:57 Will I need a CloudLifter?
07:50 My take vs Zoom F3

[curtisjudd]

My recommendation still stands: The ZOOM F3 has cleaner preamps/converters and will yield cleaner results if that is important for your recordings.

However, I stand *somewhat corrected. If you apply a high pass filter at 70Hz with a 24dB/octave curve (not exactly the same as A-weighting, but somewhat closer), the practical noise floor for the H1 XLR improves to -63dB RMS Max and the F3 to -66dB RMS Max in our practical noise samples. Better, and usable. However, once you boost spoken word/dialogue audio to levels that are typical for online distribution, say -16 LUFS, the noise floor will be back up to around -59 dB RMS Max on the H1 XLR. You may want to apply some noise reduction in post production. Still not ideal, but probably *good enough depending on your goals and production quality expectations.

[rj]

Thank you! This is one of the reviews I was hoping for. I’ve been a giddy F3 owner for almost a year now, and your comments about this new recorder’s self-noise confirmed my suspicions that I may be better off where I am. No FOMO here!

[uterzorker]

H1 XLR with FetHead is absolutely amazing. No noise whatsoever. With 2450 mAh rechargeable AA batteries from IKEA I got 4:30 hours of continuous recording with 2 microphones with FetHead and activated phantom power, connected headphone for monitoring and activated display. Connecting a powerbank or supply is possible during recording without any noise or weird distortion.

[YouTube_can_ESAD]

@3:50 I really appreciate you taking the time to break this down and give us key information like this to help us in our journey as Filmmakers/Documentarians. 2.5 decades behind the lend and Sound Quality is extremely important, without we as storytellers would have nothing, thank you again your videos on these smaller devices.

[richheaton]

Just bought the F3 for $200! Pretty great for a plant mic for my dpa 4017

[bertrandschmitt]

The biggest benefit of the X1 XLR vs F3, is that it can send USB audio while recording to its SD card. Very few recorders can do this, none at the price point.

[RemitheDreamfox]

You should make a tier list for field recorders \uwu/

[jannarkiewicz]

You convinced me to buy a Zoom F3 and I love it. BTW: I am traveling (back in the U.S. from Manila). I am using my ZV-1 M2 to record my voice overs. It has an incredible mic. I know Sony cameras are not your thing but I was blown away as an owner of a Rode NTG, Rode 5, Rode Video GO2, Rode Pro Wireless and DJI Mic 2. Have B&H lend you the ZV-1 M2. :-)

[adrianomoreira]

As always a complete video! Thank you!

[rockrl]

I'm looking for the most compact, all in one, set it and forget it audio recording option and got the instamic recommended. Do think it's an ok choice, do you know of anything even smaller, cheaper (I don't need any fancy features)?

[Work_Data_PV]

thank you very much again. i was waiting for this and wondering if yould come through since its a relatively cheap recorder.

[wenjun_n]

Can’t wait to see Curtis compare the new Tascam FR-AV2 to the Zoom F3. The implementation of timecode on the new tascam recorder seems to be more flexible for filmmakers, as we don’t need to buy into that Bluetooth timecode system.

[GadesChannel]

I get the same DC offset with my H1essential - I suppose this is something related to "new" 32 input in essential "input block". I think H1 XLR and whole essential family have a lot of similarities in this area...

[nickr]

Really appreciate this fantastic review. I know you might think it hilarious that you sold one of these these to me based on your review, but I am still reasonably confident that it will fill my specific needs while concurring with you that the F3 is a much better purchase for most people. I just really dislike the ergonomics of the F3 and the new Tascam FR-AV2 for what I want, even though I understand why they are designed as they are. I will do testing when mine arrives and I can return it if it turns out that the quality is unacceptable for my purposes. I already own higher quality recorders capable of better sound, so this is more down to if the quality is acceptable enough for when I want to be lazy and bring something smaller and not already hooked up to a sound bag or other setup.

I will check the DC offset as that could potentially be trouble, but I’m also pleasantly surprised by your RF testing, because that has been trouble for me in the past as it has been something Zoom has historically been poor at shielding against. Anyway, thanks for your review and your perspective and I look forward to testing and seeing if this will fill my needs.

[skymakai]

Wow, thank you so much for this review, Curtis. I was seriously looking at this recorder but now I’ll wait for the next generation.

[dfcx]

Zoom's given EINs are "only" 5dB apart between the F3 and the H1 XLR, interesting that the noise floor difference was significantly more in practice.

[RobertBoerner]

Excellent video, as always. I am curious what your thoughts would be of the Zoom M4 MicTrak vs. the Zoom F3...

[photoman]

thanks you curtis for this video i iwas going to buy the zoom h1 xlr after seeing this video i am sticking with my zoom f3 its a nice audio recorder.

[nileshjaitly]

hey Curtis thanks for another great review. I already own an f3 looking for a budget lav system, do you think zoom h1e with rode lav 2 is better than getting a zoom f2? or a wireless system?

[patrickchase]

I tested the noise floor of an H6Essential using a 150 ohm test plug (a Neutrik connector with a 150 ohm resistor soldered between pins 2-3), and compared it to my 888 and Mixpre II as well as some other devices. I applied A-weighting to match how the manufacturers spec their noise performance and adjusted all of them to the sam signal level with a fixed mic/source (pink noise played from a speaker at a fixed volume, as measured by an MKH8040).

The H-series A/Ds are indeed pretty noisy as you observed. They came in 6 dB worse than a FocusRite Scarlett 4i4, 8 db worse than the MixPre 3 II, and 10 II, and a full 10 dB worse than the 888. They are probably making their -120 dbU spec, but only just barely. With that said, your results seem worse than what I saw with the H6E, and in particular I didn't see that low-frequency signal in the noise floor.

Combining such limited-range A/Ds with 32-bit recording strikes me as somewhat farcical. You could set a fixed gain for 24-bit recording and capture everything from saturation down to the noise floor without undue quantization.

With all of that said, for many microphones and recording applications the H-series are "good enough". For example I don't think that any of my Lavs (which include DPA-4060, COS-11, etc) have sufficient dynamic range or a sufficiently low signal to expose the limitations of these A/Ds. I think that you have to at least be working in a quiet studio with a very good SDC like your MKH50 (or the 8050 that I sometimes use) for it to become an issue. For street interviews and similar content captured in noisy/busy settings it's a nonissue.

I urge you to consider adding A-weighting to your noise comparisons. Some A/Ds (most notably Sound Devices' 32b designs) have slightly elevated low-frequency noise, but psychoacoustic research tells us that such noise is imperceptible at low volumes and should be excluded from noise measurements. For example the S/N of the MixPre 3 II and 888 both improve by 4-5 dB when I apply A-weighting to both the reference source and the noise measurement with the test connector. I theorize that this LF noise is a side-effect of the cross-correlation algorithm that SD uses to continuously calibrate the difference between the high and low A/D signals. For the record the Zoom H-series only improve by 1-2 dB with A-weighting, so if anything lack of A-weighting probably causes you to underestimate their noisiness relative to others. A-weighting might have attenuated that LF signal that your sample produced, though.