Zoom H1essential Stereo Handy Recorder (2024 Model, Essential Series) with 32-Bit Float, Accessibility, X/Y Microphones, USB Microphone, Portable, for Musicians, Podcasters, Filmmakers

The media could not be loaded. I received my Zoom H1 essential about 20 minutes ago. Walking through the set-up perhaps wasn't the absolute easiest I've ever done, but not hard either, and I never had to reference the manual, not even once. One thing to note, you need to have 2 AAA batteries and a micro-SD card already on hand, it comes with neither and you can't use it without. So if you all excited to get recording, be aware. Luckily, I had those items so I decided to immediately run an audio check ... and this is it. The H1 attached to my tripod with no converters needed, and I simply pressed record. I also pressed record on my cell phone's video and audio recorder, and went through a song I'm currently working on. When I finished, I put the tracks into my DAW and compared ... not even close. Not close by a mile. And as A/V work is my passion, and even a paying hobby, my cell is purposefully one that is renowned for audio. I host an acoustic open mic weekly, using quality mics and a premium board, and though this isn't going to replace the 2-track recordings off the mains from the board, obviously, until now I'd been capturing the room noise (and the occasional player who wasn't mic'ed, such as cajon player or a bassist who opts to bring his own amp rather than go through my board) through my phone, and blending as necessary in post. But for the price of the H1, I realize I can substantially bring up the quality of the promo video audio. BTW, I got started so quickly I didn't even go into settings, and the H1 is set to default at 48K sample rate. I've changed it to 96K, because why not, so I suppose it is possible it squeeze even a little better fidelity out, and as all us audio people know, every little bit helps. The size is small but I like it that way, perfect, it doesn't need to be bigger so why would you. The build quality doesn't inspire hard use (and certainly not abuse), but I get the sense that if you treat it like you would a quality condenser mic or a quality acoustic guitar, it will serve for a long time. Enough of my jabber and yabbering, all you really need to know is in the video.

I've had a Zoom H4N that I've gotten a lot of mileage out of over the last 10 years or so. Having recently experienced 32bit recording with their F3 recorder, I was eager to try this out for field recording.On arrival the first challenge was figuring out how to open the packaging without destroying it. The outer sleeve was very tight, and required pushing something between it and the box and wiggling for a while, just to loosen it enough to slide off.Once I got inside the box, my first surprise was how small/light this thing is. It is *tiny* in comparison to the H4N. Roughly a small candy-bar size.It needs 2x AAA batteries (not included). And a micro SD card (also not included).When you power it up, it starts speaking to you (this was a surprise). Thankfully you can change this to just a beep, or silence as the voice quickly gets tiresome, (though could be useful for those with poor eyesight who can't read the tiny screen I guess).All the buttons to navigate the UI are quite small and could be annoying for someone with larger hands. I also found it slightly annoying that the menu button was on the side.I dug out a Sandisk extreme 128G card that I had spare, and tossed it in. It asked if I wanted to test it, and offered a full test, or quick test. I opted for quick. It failed the test about halfway through. I know there's nothing wrong with this card, and it's a genuine Sandisk card rather than a fake, so I was pretty sure the H1 was at fault here. I went to see if there was a firmware update, and there was. (Comes with 1.04 as stock, and 1.10 was available on their site). They don't offer much in the way of explanation as to what it fixes, but I was hopeful. Going through the update process took a while. After telling it to update, you power off, power on, and it flashes a single red LED for a few minutes, with nothing on the screen. The first time I thought it wasn't working, so I pushed the button and the screen came to life with "update aborted!" on it. So I went through the process again, and this time left the red LED flashing for a few minutes. It eventually finished, and had updated to 1.10. I reran the test, and it failed again. I told the H1 to format the card to see what would happen. It finished successfully, and after that, the tests passed. I guess there's something about how OSX formats FAT filesystems that zoom doesn't like.It's possible that a smaller size SD card wouldn't have had the issues I faced, and things would just work. I do notice that with the 128G card it takes a while just to boot up. I'll probably end up swapping that out for a 16G/32G card later, as that should be ample recording time for my needs.I've only done a few short tests so far, but it seems to be exactly what I'd hoped. You can record 96k 32bit with this, which is pretty crazy. I've set it to that as default, figuring I can always downsample later to a different target sample rate if necessary.The F3 would chew through batteries, so far the H1essential seems to be faring a little better, but prolonged use will determine how much better it actually is.

It states that it is 32-float, but as a USB Microphone for Mac it is only 16 bit via USB-C.I'm on macOS Sequoia 15.4.1, Mac mini M4 Pro.As a standalone voice recorder it is very good.

I had a much older version of the Zoom that I left in my car & the batteries blew up & ruined it. BUT! ... I had it for like 20 years & made a few really good bootlegs of concerts & it was fantastic. So I got this one to take its place & it works & sounds just as good, if not better, than the original. This version is much easier to use, as well. You don't have to select the front, back, or both. The mics are both on the top & sounds great all the way around.

I looked forward to getting a Zoom recorder based upon many reviews.So I bought it without reading the fine print, or LACK of fine print warning me that it was in a bar box with no instructions, no batteries, no required mini SD card, no power supply, no case, etc.So my Black Friday discounted price leaped with all the extras I had to buy separately.So, warning, Zoom practices deceptive marketing because I really didn't expect to get such a product without ANY required accessories. A POX on their marketing staff for not making it clear in the Amazon ad that all the above items would be required and purchased separately.I expect the recorder will work well as covered in various reviews, but the deceptive marketing approach is really aggravating.

I love this mic! First one I bought for recording ambient sounds. Does the job well

Not bad at all for a low cost recorder, It meets my needs for casual recording at home. I like it!