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Hello there.
I see there's a new Zoom H2Essential.
I love my H2n, there's something nice about the MS or XY recording capabilities, as well as the Surround "spatial audio" recording.

I see the mic choice is different on the H2E, seems two be two MS setups for front and back.
Which is nice!

I wonder if there's still the Spatial audio recording capabilities tho?
There appears to be the Zoom's website mentions surround sound, for when the front and rear mics are on.
But the H2n had a built in converter to change that to a single ambisonic wav with the "spatial audio mode".
Perhaps those H2 aren't really meant for 360° recordings, and I should just use a H3-VR for those kind of application. Doubt they'll make a H3VR essential. Dreaming about a Rode NT-SF1 but hey budget.

Anyone using a H2 Essential, how's the line in? I had tried a friend's h1e and I had clipping ("overload" warning) on the mic/line input when using line level. I assume there's a mic pre-amp and it's a technical limitation in a mic/line combo input.

Praise the Metal tripod thread!

Happy it's out!

Hey Sadiquecat !
This new h2essential caught my attention too, as it also features a voice guidance system, which would be very useful for a blind people like me !
First, concerning the line level, I’ve read somewhere in the specs that the maximum input level is -7dBu, which may be OK for a mic, but quite low for a line level signal.
About the internal mics patern, I think the idea is to achieve a kind of double MS. I suppose that, like on the H6essential, it would be possible to get a blended stereo track straight from the recorder mixing the front and rear recordings, or two separate stereo/MS tracks that you could blend in your favourite sound editor.
Also, I’d like to point a small detail which may be important to mention. Even if the H2essential is a 32-bits float recorder, I didn’t see anywhere that it features a dual A/D converter circuit. So, even if the 32-bits float allows to overload the 0dBFS, the total dynamic range of the system will be limited by the single A/D converter, meaning that the recordings from the H2essential would probably not allow a greater dynamic range than those made with your current H2N.
So, in my opinion, the only advantages of the new H2essential is that you don’t have to adjust the recording level, and that you’ll probably have to deal with a double MS file system if you like it. But, in terms of 360° recording capabilities, I’m not sure the new H2essential would be a real game changer.

Wishing you all the best !

Kevin

Hi!
The Zoom H2Essential also caught my eye, but I haven't used it yet.
Very cool formfactor.

I would think it just has surround capability, because there is no mic for the height/Z-axis.
Still would be interesting to compare surround coming from the H2Essential with the H3VR.

Though what I'm really after is an improved version of the H3VR.
I had that one for a while, but for my taste it was just too noisy for many applications.
Nevertheless I caught some useful rain recordings and loud city ambiences with it.
With that one the formfactor was also brilliant for a 1st-order Ambisonic & recorder.

With the Rode NT-SF1 I'm in the same boat as you. ^^

Best wishes,
Sebastian