Originally Posted by kanebear
The R-09 is going to be a great device (and I would assume superior to the M-Audio which has had mediocre reviews and still has some issues, M-Audio does good value/money but their products aren't the best.) but given your CF media, you might be better served by the R-09's "older" brother, the
R-1. It's pretty much bulletproof and has been proven in the market. Sound quality is very good from the internal mics and it can record directly to MP3.
If you're more of a casual user, this
Olympus at $129 might work.
Here is a page where you can see a review and download a sample recording. It records to WMA, not MP3 but it's easily transcoded from one to the other. Downsides are that it only has 128MB and isn't expandable. The Olympus DS20 has more features and isn't as subject to handling noise but costs more.
For me, the unit *I* want is
this one. *droool*
There're a few direct-to-USB interfaces out there but none are very high quality. IMO the R-1 is going to be the best balance between quality and portability/ease of use followed by the Olympus if you want to be cost conscious.
I agree on all parts of your post that I understand.
I am quite happy with my Olympus DM-1 except for two issues:
- For me the conversions to wav then to mp3 have been getting tedious since in months when I am teaching, I will have 80 to 100 tracks to convert. If I had many less, then it would not be a problem
-
Kanebear do you know the answer to the question I posted above - which is the other problem: since the R-09 has two audio inputs: one "mic" and one "line" would I be able to do away with the box that "steps down" the signal from a "line out" on a sound board?