I just scored a used Korg MR-2 at a decent price. Used it for the first time last night,
so i'll give you my first impressions and compare it to the MR-1.
The MR-2's size is a little different, it's narrower and a slight bit taller than the MR-1.
Battery door on the back is similar to the Sony M-10. It uses (2) AA Batteries and SD cards.
The screen is a lot smaller on the MR-2, the size and metering of the MR-1 was just wonderful
but the screen on the MR-2 has all the info you need, and i had no problems seeing everything at
the show last night.
Korg got rid of the scroll wheel on the right side and added a menu button right under the screen.
Now there are separate buttons for increasing or decreasing the input level on the left side.
The battery life is still to be determined, i used the unit last night for 2.5 hours recording and 1.5 hours
of playback and there are still two bars (out of three) showing on the battery level. I am using Powerex 2700 AA's.
Different from the MR-1, this unit can be powered by the USB connection. I tryed this at home and it works fine,
as soon as you plug in the USB, the battery level changes to a USB logo. There is no connector for external battery.
Another big difference i noticed is adding a lot of gain with the MR-2, last night an acoustic player opened and i recorded a test track
using max gain and then lowering it every minute or so. After listening, there was no noise i could hear even at max gain. On the MR-1
loads of extra noise would be introduced by adding too much gain.
The headphone out sounds very good. I must admit i never used the MR-1's headphone out so i can't compare.
Every time i put the MR-2 in my pocket, the unit turned on. No problem, i know to use the hold switch.
The inputs are now unbalanced mini stereo for both line and mic. No more dual balanced inputs.
Can't comment on the internal mics, i won't use them. I noticed a wheel on the upper right side to rotate them.
How about the important part? Hows the sound? Well......after recording one show, it's hard to say if the MR-2 sounds better than the MR-1.
In my opinion it sounds just as good. With the changeable batteries and powering by USB, and the ability to record to SD cards Korg addressed
all the problems with the MR-1. The only thing wrong is the price. B&H Photo has reduced the price to $499.00
Samples here :
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=388908