[spettroJazz]

The two products seem to be identical, I found these differences that
one have and the other not:

four microphones within the zoom h2
the h2 has got the power adapter included

The boss has got 32 virtual tracks, with multitrack recording
the drum machine within the boss mbr micro.

Do someone know other criteria for a more comprehensive comparison?

The best reviews I found are on zzsounds.com

p.s. I'm not interseted on audio effects.

[John Williamson]

spettroJazz wrote:
The two products seem to be identical, I found these differences that
one have and the other not:

four microphones within the zoom h2
the h2 has got the power adapter included

The boss has got 32 virtual tracks, with multitrack recording
the drum machine within the boss mbr micro.

Do someone know other criteria for a more comprehensive comparison?

The best reviews I found are on zzsounds.com

p.s. I'm not interseted on audio effects.

They're different machines for different jobs. I've got the H2 & it does
a very good job of recording stereo sound, with an option of recording
using all 4 microphones that are built in to it to give a surround
effect. It also works as a 2 channel USB connected audio card/ stereo
microphone under Windows XP using built in XP functionality under WDM. I
have tried it with Audacity & Cubasis & it works well, at sample rates
of 44.1KHz & 48KHz, but only at 16 bit depth, recording from either its
internal mics or an external source. You can also use it as a playback
card, giving good quality from the combined line out/ headphone socket.
It works either from the mains unit supplied or a pair of pencell
batteries for about 4 hours when recording. It is USB powered when
connected to a PC.

It gives clear recordings, with the option of using an external
microphone pair without phantom power being available, & has unbalanced
inputs, but it has plug in power for the consumer grade mics that use
it. It's got a stereo unbalanced line input as well. From its built in
mics., it will record at up to 96KHz/ 24 bit on all 4 channels at once.
From external sources, it's limited to 2 channels at all bit depth/
sample rate variations, as far as I can tell without delving deep into
the manual, which can be downloaded from Zoom's website. If you're a Mac
person, you need to upgrade the firmware to version 1.20, again off the
website.

Built in toys include a very basic metronome & a versatile guitar tuner.

I was looking at the Boss unit as well, but it seems only able to record
a single pair of tracks at a time, & is designed to be used as a
portable scratchpad for musical work, hence the built in effects &
rhythm section. It will also only play back 4 of the 32 virtual tracks
at once.

It also has a limited selection of recording modes compared to the H2,
which will record uncompressed .wav files at full sample rate/
resolution or mp3 up to 320Kbps in real time, whereas the Boss only goes
up to 44.1KHz at 24 bits. The H2 will also work with 4GB SD cards.

Horses for courses, I think. H2 for recording live sound, the Boss for
making music while you're on the train.


--
Tciao for Now!

John.

[Geoff]

spettroJazz wrote:
The two products seem to be identical, I found these differences that
one have and the other not:

four microphones within the zoom h2
the h2 has got the power adapter included

The boss has got 32 virtual tracks, with multitrack recording
the drum machine within the boss mbr micro.

Do someone know other criteria for a more comprehensive comparison?

The best reviews I found are on zzsounds.com

p.s. I'm not interseted on audio effects.

Sounds like you are trying to compare two totally dissimilar products with
different purposes.

geoff