Handheld Digital Recorders for $199 - Zoom, Yamaha or Tascam?

[DavidE]

Hey all. I have a Zoom H2 and it really works pretty well, but my son and I tend to argue over who gets to use it so I figured I'd get another as he's off to music school in the fall. It's down to $179 new now, but there are two other contenders at $199. I need to make a decision today as I have a $75 coupon good on a purchase of $199 or more.

I like that the Zoom H2 has 4 mics, though I use it in 2 mic mode 99% of the time. I also like that it comes with very handy accessories including a stand, an attachment that lets you put it in a mic clip, a windscreen, an AC adapter, earbuds etc... I've gotten decent recordings of my band as long as our sound guy remembers to push the button the right way (he only got first set this weekend).

The others don't come with much at all.

The Yamaha has 2GB of built in memory and no room for a memory card. It's much smaller and looks more robust (metal vs. plastic construction. Only 2 mics. Recent $100 price drop, so it was more expensive.

The Tascam is a new model that looks more similar to the Zoom with only 2 mics, a 2gb card, but no handy accesories that make it easy to use.

Anyone familiar with the Yamahamaha and Tascam models? I couldn't find any comparisons online.

Thanks!

 

[DavidE]

This is the Tascam model:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwYLw3DIzO0

 

[teefus]

man-up david and get the olympus.
i got one for alpep and it is fantastic. it comes with cubase software.

 

[DavidE]

I picked up a second H2 here for $100. They'll do for now.

 

[jdogjent]

Zoom H2 and H4 are surprisingly good

 

[cjs42079]

I'm in love with the iRiver H320. They actually don't make these anymore, but if you can find a good used one it's great. It's a 20GB hard drive, color screen, and has been very reliable. I upgraded the software to Rockbox, which allows you to record in WAV format (as well as a bunch of other great add ons, like FLAC compatability, FM radio, etc). I use the external mic input since I have a real nice pair of CoreSound Binaurals which IMO sound waAAaay better than any of the built in mics on the Zooms or Tascams. I ran my iriver against the Zoom H2 once in practice and once at a gig and my iriver with the binaurals mics blew away the Zoom. Although the Zoom did sound decent enough for sure.

Anyway, it's probably not the best solution for most people but I just wanted to chime in and say how much I love it. I've been using it to tape band practices, gigs and even bootlegging big bands for about the past 5 years. Plus, with the 20GB I can store all kinda of crap on there like band pictures, family pictures, videos, and even my resume.