On 12/1/2016 9:31 AM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
I don't know if this is what you're referring to, but the input stages have
very little headroom (which isn't surprising considering they're running on
very low voltage rails with battery power). So it is possible to set the gains
low and clip the hell out of the inputs without the meters coming anywhere
near full scale.
Set on line input, a normal +4 input will severely clip, and a -10 consumer
input is likely to clip. Adding an external pad will fix it.
The Zoom H2 and H4 were like this but by the time the H4n (which is
still a current model) came along, they fixed this. With the H4n that I
tested, I could put +28 dBu into the line input, turn the record level
control down so that the meters were reading below 0 dFS and not have
clipping. I don't remember how much level the mic inputs will take
without clipping, but it was more than enough so that this shouldn't be
concern as long as the meters aren't pegged.
What I do recall is that the analog output stage will clip when playing
a 0 dBFS recording with the output level turned up full, even running
into an open circuit. So if you're monitoring at a sufficiently too-loud
level, you could hear clipping even though the recording isn't clipped.
Everybody who has one of these things should experiment with them and
learn their limits. Everybody who has one of these things should also
have some test equipment. That's the rub.
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