The midrange sounds a bit constricted and nasal on the Zoom, and I do notice a bit of bass boom the piano sound seems a bit more 'generic'. I hope this thread provides a useful data point to some other poor soul who's trying to decide on which recorder to buy. The Sony is an incredibly powerful recording tool. I can't wait to mess with the mic settings, the recording limiter, different bit-depths and resolutions, etc. I've only recorded three songs with it so far, but it seems very promising. I also feel the mid-ranges sound tinny, like a honky-tonk piano, and the bass is uncharacteristically boomy for a nice grand piano. It sounds like there might be a rotary fan turning somewhere in the room, subtly reflecting and amplifying sound at some periodic rate. But the sound, well, it warbles.or modulates.I don't know the term. To me, the H2 had more of a 'surround sound' quality to it, even though it was recorded with 90-degree front mics only. These are meant to be demonstrations of the recorders - not my playing.

I had to alter the Zoom recording using Audicity to remove some distortion the Sony recording was post-processed to simply amplify it by 3.8db. While the Zoom recording was made three months ago, both recorders were placed in the same location inside my piano, using built-in 90-degree mics. I say 'subtle' because people like my wife, who doesn't obsess over these kinds of details, can't hear any differences at all. I thought I'd post a snippet of Brahms, recorded with each, to show potential buyers the subtle differences between the recorders. Well, this Christmas brought an opportunity to sell my Zoom and buy a Sony (via - highly recommended). I've placed the Zoom in hundreds of positions around the room, looking for the perfect spot, but never quite capturing the Estonia sound. With the Zoom, albeit a great recorder, I've struggled to digitally capture the texture of the piano that I hear from behind the music desk. I've been a happy Zoom H2 owner for several months now, but I've always been curious as to just how much better the expensive Sony D50 digital recorder could reproduce the sound of my piano.

Sony pcm d50