rirsa Posted September 29, 2004 Report Share Posted September 29, 2004 Message to Sony: competition at the affordable end of the quality portable recording market is getting hotter. Check it out: http://www.edirol.com/products/info/r1.html Supposed to be available in a couple of months with a price of $550 but maybe street price will be lower. ============================ Main Specifications Audio Input/Output Input Internal Microphone (stereo) Stereo Microphone (1/8" phone jack : plug-in powered compatible type) 1/8" Stereo Line Input Output 1/8" stereo phone jack, Headphones (1/8" stereo phone jack), S/PDIF 1/8" phone optical type (same port as Headphones) Recorder/Player 2 Tracks (1 stereo track) Recording data format WAV, MP3 CompactFlash card Up to 2 GB capacity Audio Effects 1. Easy EQ (11 presets) 2. For Speech 3. Voice Perform 4. Editable EQ (10 Band EQ : 32/64/125/250/500/1k/2k/4k/8k/16k Hz) 5. Noise Reducer 6. Hum Noise Cut 7. Reverb 8. Int-Mic Rec. (Mic Simulator Optimized for Built-in Mic) 9. Ext-Mic Rec. (Mic Simulator for External Mic) 10. Mastering 11. Center Cancel 12. Tuner 13. Metronome Signal Processing AD/DA conversion 24 bit / 44.1 kHz Power Supply AC adaptor (included) or Battery Rechargeable Ni-MH AA x 2 or Alkaline AA x 2. R-1 has no charge function. Battery life Playback: approximate 6 hours, Recording: approximate 2.5 hours USB USB 2.0 Storage device (WindowsXP/2000/Me, MacOS9.2 or MacOS X, OS standard driver) Display 20 x 2 character display Accessories CF Card 64 MB, AC Adaptor Roland PSB-6U type, Carrying Case, Owner's manual Dimensions 99.25 (W) x 134 (D) x 30.2 (H) mm / 3-15/16 (W) x 5-5/16 (D) x 1-3/16 (H) inches Weight 205 g / 8 oz (excluding CF and batteries) Options Headphones Roland RH-200/RH-50 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rirsa Posted September 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 29, 2004 From the Press release: "Kim Nunney, President of Edirol Corporation North America comments, "Hard drive and memory-based portable audio players are hugely popular. In the case of recorders, however, very few quality lower-cost options exists leaving legacy media devices like cassette, DAT, or MD as your choices.” He continues, "The R-1 was designed to satisfy the needs of musicians, field recorders and videomakers. This user group needs portability beyond laptops with high quality sound, lengthy recording times and random access.”" http://www.edirol.com/press/html/2004/0927...2704_r1_pr.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jadeclaw Posted September 29, 2004 Report Share Posted September 29, 2004 A cheaper, more compact alternative to the well known Marantz recorder. I think Edirol sets a precedence here, despite the low running time. It offers the flexibility, that everyone expected from Hi-MD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artstar Posted September 29, 2004 Report Share Posted September 29, 2004 A cheaper, more compact alternative to the well known Marantz recorder. I think Edirol sets a precedence here, despite the low running time. It offers the flexibility, that everyone expected from Hi-MD.True that. On the one hand, I wish now I hadn't purchased my MZ-NH1 but on the other, I feel that recording in MP3 just won't be as good as HiMD-SP anyway. If it had support for more than 2GB CF, then that would definitely be ideal giving me enough PCM recording space for a whole concert no drama. I'd love that!! That's the whole reason why I got HiMD - I was always seeking a longer recording time so I wouldn't have to time when the disc swapping should take place during a gig 3#-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dex Otaku Posted September 29, 2004 Report Share Posted September 29, 2004 Now if only 1GB CF cost $10CAD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Confused in Colorado Posted September 29, 2004 Report Share Posted September 29, 2004 Now if only 1GB CF cost $10CAD.at least you can find 1gb cf cards in stores and you have a choice of brands. this kind of device has the potential to deliver on just about everything that hi-md has failed on. sure, the replaceable media is more expensive which might make it prohibitive for a few users who want their entire music collection on one device, but that is a pretty small trade off for solid state build (no motor noise), advanced recording capability, no stupid sony copyright crap to prevent you from using it as you wish etc. this thing looks like a bargain on paper and if it pans out i'll sell all of my md equipment in a heartbeat (assuming i could find anyone to buy it). add this to other things on the horizion (iriver has a new player coming out that is 20g, can store and view digital pics in full color and is less than sony's top hi-md) and i think it is looking more and more like hi-md will soon be a footnote in sony's history. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rirsa Posted September 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 29, 2004 Now if only 1GB CF cost $10CAD.Good point but the price is falling fast. Sandisk 1GB CF card is $75 on buy.com at the moment and you get $15 coupon to spend at Ofoto into the bargain. Six months ago a 1GB CF card was at least $150. Another 6 months from now and I'm guessing the cost will be well below $50. Yes, you'll still want to offload onto another storage medium but the offloading is over USB2 ("At maximum resolution (24-bit/44.1kHz) the R-1 can transfer a 60 minute file (908 MB) to the computer in just three minutes") and there is no copy protection nonsense because it acts as a standard USB Mass Storage device Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dex Otaku Posted September 29, 2004 Report Share Posted September 29, 2004 Any idea what the MSRP is? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyena Posted September 29, 2004 Report Share Posted September 29, 2004 Any idea what the MSRP is?Edirol says $550. Frankly the point of removable media for this device is moot, considering that you'd have time to take what you recorded off of the device and onto a computer considering you'll be in need of charging the battery anyways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rirsa Posted September 30, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 30, 2004 Not sure why this got moved to the off topic forum. Maybe Sony execs aren't the only ones with their heads in the sand. I thought this device was highly relevant to the future of the Hi-MD format. My point was that MD isn't the only game in the low cost / high quality portable recording arena. There are solid state recorders, ones designed with recording as their primary purpose, starting to appear with features/quality/price that make them serious alternatives to Hi-MD, especially as they address the upload issue that is such a source of dissatisfaction with Sony. Who knows how well the Edirol device will work (on paper it looks good) but I'm sure it's not the last we'll see. The existing Marantz recorder can be had for $600 and I'm sure we will see more from Marantz in the future. I wouldn't be surprised if we see devices with similar specs to the Edirol from Marantz and other companies next year that will hit a street price of around $400. All those companies see that Sony have left a hole in the recording market you could drive a truck through. Listen to what the President of Edirol says: "Hard drive and memory-based portable audio players are hugely popular. In the case of recorders, however, very few quality lower-cost options exists leaving legacy media devices like cassette, DAT, or MD as your choices.” Ouch! Apple and others are killing them in the player market and now my bet is that other companies who cater to the needs of recordists are going to kill them in the recording market because Sony have botched and continue to botch the whole recording upload issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted September 30, 2004 Report Share Posted September 30, 2004 I put this topic in the Music, Electronics + etc [off topic] forum because it is a device that is not Hi-MD. I do this with all posts that speak of electronics that are not related to MD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rirsa Posted October 1, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2004 If it had support for more than 2GB CF, then that would definitely be ideal giving me enough PCM recording space for a whole concert no drama. I'd love that!! Edirol have apparently told others that the unit will support greater than 2GB. I'd e-mail them for info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rirsa Posted October 1, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2004 I put this topic in the Music, Electronics + etc [off topic] forum because it is a device that is not Hi-MD. I do this with all posts that speak of electronics that are not related to MD.Well, maybe I should have given it a different original subject line. For me the main topic here is not the Edirol R-1 as such but what the increasing appearance of afforable portable solid state recording devices that are designed to meet the needs of recordists means for the postion of Hi-MD in the afforable recording market. Sony used to cater to this market (cassette recorders like the WM-6, their portable DAT recorders, MD etc.) but as the person from Edirol says, these are now "legacy devices". Sony seems to have lost interest in being a leader in this segment. How long are people going to be prepared to mess with work arounds (a major topic on the Hi-MD forum) for Sony's copy protection / upload complexities when you can buy a similar or better recording device for about the same money, plug it into your computer (even a MAC!) using a USB2 cable, and drag and drop your audio recordings into an editor or do whatever you want with them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rirsa Posted October 1, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2004 Pre-order price of $439 at http://www.bananas.com/. Suspect we'll see lower prices later, but even at this price it's not much more than a MZ-NH1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted October 2, 2004 Report Share Posted October 2, 2004 It's a nice device. Spend $200 or so on a hacked Muvo² 5GB drive and you're set. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted October 3, 2004 Report Share Posted October 3, 2004 Well, it's become newsworthy. Discussion may continue here: http://forums.minidisc.org/viewtopic.php?t=6248 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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