Customer Rating: 
Summary: Probably an OK product but mine was defective
Comment: I bought the Zoom H2 to record some audio for our wedding. However, the unit that I received had the problem of the loud "pop" during playback. I found out that this only happened when using the front mic. The pop was not there when recording with the rear mic only. Since there was no time to get a replacement before the wedding day, I simply returned the Zoom, made the audio recordings on my laptop mic, and bought a Flip Mino with the money.
If you get a good one, this might work fine but mine wasn't worth the money.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Buy it, just not at Amazon
Comment: I bought the H2 because a friend of mine has one and has recorded my band with it at a number of gigs. The sound is unreal. Better than a bootleg but not quite as good (obviously) as individually mic'd instruments. The quality is so good that you may be able to record gigs (where the mixing was done correctly) and use them as promotional audio or even sell them as merchandise at future gigs. At the very least, it is a great reference source. Set it up at rehearsals and listen back to yourself. The good news is it is an exact representation of what you are playing and the bad news is it is an exact representation of what you are playing. Buy it but just not at Amazon.com. Here is why.
Like you, I have purchased many items in the past from Amazon.com and have been pleased enough to make other purchases. I now get emails from Amazon.com with sale items on it. I received such an email with the H2 on it. Since I was in the market for one, I clicked on the advertisement and was taken right to the H2 purchase page. The price was $159 and change. I read a little more about it and then added it to my shopping cart. When I went to my shopping cart to purchase it, the price was $179 and change. I couldn't believe it. I went back to the H2 page and the price was now $168 and change, not the $159+ original price. When I went back to the cart, it was priced at $168+. I called Amazon.com to find out why the price flucuation and why I was not being charged the $159+ original price. The answer was Orwellian. It was some bull crap about demand and availability. I told them that what they were doing was disingenuous, at best, and flat-out fraudulent, at worst (bait-and-switch). Can you imagine going into Target, putting an item in your cart because it is marked at $20 and then, when you get to the cashier, they charge you $25 and then give you some nonsense about availability and demand? If there was a discrepancy between the advertised price and a scanned price, you always get the lower of the two. Not at Amazon.com. They will jack up the price randomly and then charge you the higher price. I mentioned to them that they should at least honor the advertised price for a period of time, like when you purchase concert tickets online. You see the seats and have 5 minutes to make the purchase.
Buy the H2. You will love it. It is easy to use and a great tool for any serious (or casual) musician. Just don't buy it at Amazon.com.
Customer Rating:
Summary: So far so good
Comment: I haven't used this product much since receiving it but so far I am impressed with how it sounds and what it can do. A year from now I'll probably have more to say when I have used more of its features. I did run a test to see how it would synch with footage from my digital HV 30 Canon camcorder. Gooolllleeeeyyy -- it worked! Perfect synch when I got the audio aligned properly in iMovie 6.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Zoom H2
Comment: I use the zoom h2 to record our practice sessions and live gigs. It works very well in both situations. Yes it would be nice to have more inputs etc. And it is plastic so do not drop it. But for what I use it for it is perfect. I could spend 500 on the sony, but would only use it for the same purpose, so why waste the money? The sound quality is great. The mics are very sensitive and sound clear. I had a sony md unit I used, and a tascam portastudio. Both those are craiglisted out of here... The zoom handles all that and more. It is simple to use and the card plugs into my computer to trans the files - I then edit on cakewalk and just like that - burn em' to a disk... easy and they sound great! Buy one and have some fun recording.
Customer Rating:
Summary: H2 Review
Comment: Pretty amazing little device. The H2 is slightly larger then a bar of soap and comes with everything that you need right out of the box. I use the H2 to record my live drum practice sessions. If you are like me and can't spend the dollars on individual mics, mixers, and other components this is the next best thing, and better then using a $10 computer mic connected to the sound card.
The recording is all digital and easily connects to the PC via USB2 for further manipulation with wave editing software (not provided). It will also record in 24 Bit uncompressed wave format which is better then CD quality and better then most average sound cards. It has a lot of built in preset mixers based on the type of recording you plan on doing. It's important to experiment with this and use the suggested settings. If you use this a lot in portable situations I would strongly advise using rechargeable batteries. This device will allow you to specify alkaline or Ni Cad, so I'm uncertain if the device itself will charge the batteries when using the provided AC adapter. I use lithium rechargeable batteries with it's own charger.
This has the ability to convert wave recordings to MP3's so if you don't already have ripping software this can do it for you. Also, it can record in MP3 format. It comes stock with 512MB of SD card RAM. This is about 48 minutes of 16 Bit - 44khz recording.
This device would be good as well to record meetings with it's built in wide range mic. It comes with a small screw in base that takes up very little space.
The H2 comes with a fair amount of documentation which is very helpful, though if you fumble through the menus you can quickly figure this thing out. I've had it for about a month and overall I'm happy with it. There is an H4 available which from what I hear has a lot more advanced features. I hear the H2 is easier to use.
As always, take the time to do your own research to form your own opinion before finalizing your decision purchasing any specialized device.
Summary: Probably an OK product but mine was defective
Comment: I bought the Zoom H2 to record some audio for our wedding. However, the unit that I received had the problem of the loud "pop" during playback. I found out that this only happened when using the front mic. The pop was not there when recording with the rear mic only. Since there was no time to get a replacement before the wedding day, I simply returned the Zoom, made the audio recordings on my laptop mic, and bought a Flip Mino with the money.
If you get a good one, this might work fine but mine wasn't worth the money.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Buy it, just not at Amazon
Comment: I bought the H2 because a friend of mine has one and has recorded my band with it at a number of gigs. The sound is unreal. Better than a bootleg but not quite as good (obviously) as individually mic'd instruments. The quality is so good that you may be able to record gigs (where the mixing was done correctly) and use them as promotional audio or even sell them as merchandise at future gigs. At the very least, it is a great reference source. Set it up at rehearsals and listen back to yourself. The good news is it is an exact representation of what you are playing and the bad news is it is an exact representation of what you are playing. Buy it but just not at Amazon.com. Here is why.
Like you, I have purchased many items in the past from Amazon.com and have been pleased enough to make other purchases. I now get emails from Amazon.com with sale items on it. I received such an email with the H2 on it. Since I was in the market for one, I clicked on the advertisement and was taken right to the H2 purchase page. The price was $159 and change. I read a little more about it and then added it to my shopping cart. When I went to my shopping cart to purchase it, the price was $179 and change. I couldn't believe it. I went back to the H2 page and the price was now $168 and change, not the $159+ original price. When I went back to the cart, it was priced at $168+. I called Amazon.com to find out why the price flucuation and why I was not being charged the $159+ original price. The answer was Orwellian. It was some bull crap about demand and availability. I told them that what they were doing was disingenuous, at best, and flat-out fraudulent, at worst (bait-and-switch). Can you imagine going into Target, putting an item in your cart because it is marked at $20 and then, when you get to the cashier, they charge you $25 and then give you some nonsense about availability and demand? If there was a discrepancy between the advertised price and a scanned price, you always get the lower of the two. Not at Amazon.com. They will jack up the price randomly and then charge you the higher price. I mentioned to them that they should at least honor the advertised price for a period of time, like when you purchase concert tickets online. You see the seats and have 5 minutes to make the purchase.
Buy the H2. You will love it. It is easy to use and a great tool for any serious (or casual) musician. Just don't buy it at Amazon.com.
Customer Rating:
Summary: So far so good
Comment: I haven't used this product much since receiving it but so far I am impressed with how it sounds and what it can do. A year from now I'll probably have more to say when I have used more of its features. I did run a test to see how it would synch with footage from my digital HV 30 Canon camcorder. Gooolllleeeeyyy -- it worked! Perfect synch when I got the audio aligned properly in iMovie 6.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Zoom H2
Comment: I use the zoom h2 to record our practice sessions and live gigs. It works very well in both situations. Yes it would be nice to have more inputs etc. And it is plastic so do not drop it. But for what I use it for it is perfect. I could spend 500 on the sony, but would only use it for the same purpose, so why waste the money? The sound quality is great. The mics are very sensitive and sound clear. I had a sony md unit I used, and a tascam portastudio. Both those are craiglisted out of here... The zoom handles all that and more. It is simple to use and the card plugs into my computer to trans the files - I then edit on cakewalk and just like that - burn em' to a disk... easy and they sound great! Buy one and have some fun recording.
Customer Rating:
Summary: H2 Review
Comment: Pretty amazing little device. The H2 is slightly larger then a bar of soap and comes with everything that you need right out of the box. I use the H2 to record my live drum practice sessions. If you are like me and can't spend the dollars on individual mics, mixers, and other components this is the next best thing, and better then using a $10 computer mic connected to the sound card.
The recording is all digital and easily connects to the PC via USB2 for further manipulation with wave editing software (not provided). It will also record in 24 Bit uncompressed wave format which is better then CD quality and better then most average sound cards. It has a lot of built in preset mixers based on the type of recording you plan on doing. It's important to experiment with this and use the suggested settings. If you use this a lot in portable situations I would strongly advise using rechargeable batteries. This device will allow you to specify alkaline or Ni Cad, so I'm uncertain if the device itself will charge the batteries when using the provided AC adapter. I use lithium rechargeable batteries with it's own charger.
This has the ability to convert wave recordings to MP3's so if you don't already have ripping software this can do it for you. Also, it can record in MP3 format. It comes stock with 512MB of SD card RAM. This is about 48 minutes of 16 Bit - 44khz recording.
This device would be good as well to record meetings with it's built in wide range mic. It comes with a small screw in base that takes up very little space.
The H2 comes with a fair amount of documentation which is very helpful, though if you fumble through the menus you can quickly figure this thing out. I've had it for about a month and overall I'm happy with it. There is an H4 available which from what I hear has a lot more advanced features. I hear the H2 is easier to use.
As always, take the time to do your own research to form your own opinion before finalizing your decision purchasing any specialized device.