EEVblog #271 - Zoom H1 Recorder Teardown

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Teardown Tuesday
What's inside the Zoom H1 Portable Handy MP3/WAV Recorder?

• Category

  Science & Technology

[Willem Sparreboom]

On 4:44, where did you buy that spatula? A real handy tool.

[EEVblog]

Ebay. It's called spudger.

[Randy Lott]

I'm impressed. It's as if you've already studied the circuitry. You're on your game, Dave.

I've begun to improve a bit in my circuit identification thanks to you. They don't teach that in college; that's for sure! The old farts teaching theory probably don't even know what SMD components are.

[EEVblog]

No study, it's all still off the cuff. I don't open up, inspect, and them contemplate for while before recording. Although I have mostly learned to look up unknown chip part numbers before pressing record, instead of just taking a silly stab :->

[Nathan Fryar]

i like tear down tuesday... i think you should tear down a iPad soon

[EEVblog]

Way too many iPad teardowns on Youtube.

[Patrick Donovan]

dont think I mentioned yet, I love teardown tuesdays

[Nedemai]

If anyone bought one of the originals of this device a firmware was released to allow it to operate as a usb microphone / sound card. Only 16 bit 48khz recording however.

[appleandroid2013]

Cool

[mikemip2005]

They probably put the USB port there because the device can be USB powered.

[Ramon Garcia]

I'm a few months late to the party. Enjoyed your H1 Teardown. I've got the H4 and a Rode Video Mic, but looking to lighten my load. I like your style. I like to tinker with technolog/digital video -- just not as brave/courageous as you about tearing stuff down. Maybe you'll inspire me.

[georgew0304]

Cheers for the video, I wanted to take off the cover of my H1 because the card cover broke off and left the little bit inside the H1 leaving it with a rattling sound.

[Titus-Armand Napirlica]

With the 1.1 firmware update it can be used as a USB mic and DAC.

[Chris Roberts]

(search for c55xcodecs to find data on them - can't post a URL it seems ...)

[Chris Roberts]

That TI C55xx DSP has a number of "accelerated" audio codecs available for it

However notably not MP3 ENcoder. So they must have licensed that above what's normally freely available, or rolled their own (and are probably paying royalties for it). Interestingly, it's also got AAC encoding which arguably has a better bitrate than comparable MP3 audio - I wonder if they'll bring out a Zoom H1.1 with an extra position on the switch to switch to AAC encoding

[linagee]

Dave,

I got one of these same Zoom audio recorders, $30, shipped. (Quite a deal, it was even new in box.)

I put it on 96kHz/24bit mode and recorded a bit in my office. I put the audio file into audacity and went to Analyze->Plot Spectrum. I think it's quite weird how there is a very "loud" 32kHz ultrasonic source in here. I think its from the motion detectors here. I saw there's a 32kHz crystal inside on your video. I tested a recording outside and I don't get the 32kHz sound. Thanks 4 teardown!

[strabbs1]

How do I load it onto a computer.