Zoom H4n Portable Recorder includes 16GB SDHC card, RC4 remote, Samson CH700 Headphones, Tripod Stand, and Hard Case

The H4n:
Pros-simple to learn, well thought-out design, fairly rugged-feeling, very good sound quality, lots of nice-to-have features.

Cons-lots of handling noise, takes forever to start up, typical Japanese "stereo instructions" manual (written by someone with not quite a full grasp of Engrish), eats batteries. I have no idea how anybody could get 6 hours use out of a set of batteries.

This kit:
Pros-the hard shell case is awesome. It's worth the up-charge by itself. Headphones are pretty good backups.

Cons-this spindly little cheapo tripod is totally unusable. You can buy one just like it at the dollar store. Why anybody would spend $300 on the recorder and then trust this tripod to hold it has all the elements of a joke.

In the end, the Zoom H4n portable recorder, and kit of accessories, is everything I hoped for in a high quality handheld recorder except for the Transcend 16 GB Class 6 SDHC card included in the kit. My first 8-10 recordings sounded muffled, a bit distorted, and there seemed to be occasional and intermittent drop-outs. These were all done using both the built-in microphones and external mics, with the recorder set at the highest sample rate for recording. I had read great reviews about the H4n before buying it, and so I was perplexed. I tried different sample rates, but the playback was about the same regardless. So I considered what might cause such poor results. No matter what settings I used, or what I tried, results were always the same. So I considered for awhile what else, short of some internal problem with the recorder, might cause this.

The recorder comes from the factory with a 1 GB Class 6 memory card, and the kit of accessories included a Transcend 16 GB...Read more

I am radio talk show host who covers the State House and spot journalism. This recorder is the best I have used yet. I don't see too many of them in my business, but everyone I work with is impressed with it.

Before purchasing this product, I did extensive research on it, even listening to audio samples comparing it with other recorders. The microphones on the unit are as good, if not better than most microphones that are used in the field. In fact, in learning how to use this product, I confused the microphone with my Electrovoice mic in my sound tests. When I used the setting in the field, the people were off mic, but because there is no hiss or other background noise on the built in mics, nobody could tell.

Before I purchased this, often times, I had to rush back from the State House to the studio to dub in audio through the board into the computer to edit it. Because the Zoom H4N acts as the card reader, I plug into the USB port on my production...Read more