Back in April we learned that Zoom had a successor to the popular H4N audio recorder in the making. Details were slim, but it certainly looked promising. Well now we have the full low-down on the new device.


The recorder looks a great deal more filmmaker-suited than its predecessor, with physical knobs and even a shoe mount on the back for mounting directly atop a DSLR.


Here are the key specs:

Six tracks of simultaneous recording

Four interchangeable input capsules: stereo X/Y (included), Mid-Side (included), Shotgun (optional) & combo dual XLR/TRS (optional).

Large full-color display for easy viewing of recording and playback levels

Records directly to SD, SDHC and SDXC cards up to 128 gigabytes

Compatible with MP3 and BWF-compliant WAV file formats, including 24-bit / 96k for ultimate HD audio

Four XLR/TRS combo jacks to connect external microphones or line-level devices each with their own gain control, pad switch AND phantom power in three different voltages

USB port for data transfer to audio editing software and allows for H6 to serve as multichannel audio interface for computer and tablets

Connects to DSLR or digital camcorder

Runs on 4 AA batteries for up to 20 hours.

The Zoom H6 will be available in late July and price at $400. It will be interesting to see if it shares the success of the H4N, since DSLR video is waning a bit with the introduction of dedicated video cameras like the Canon C100/300 and Sony FS100/700. But the H6 looks to be versatile enough to find a place in the gear closets of other types of users.