I recall seeing the R4 as retailing somewhere at close to $1650,also that it had both HD and flashcard recording and I recall some kind of buffer geared to those late starts where you miss the first few notes,but probably just as handy as a way to beat any limit on wave filesize. 4 channel-24/96,good pre+phantom-under $2k. Granted,the Testa Rosa crowd is accustomed to perfect tech,and to a few $8k for a taping rig is acceptable. My sense is that a $3k rig is pretty high end-you'd have to record abot 100 shows to justify that. Edirol,with the R1 and R4 appears to be a first rate option in those price ranges. This stuff won't be a mass market,relative to something like a nomad but in a year R! at $400 and R4 at $1500 may be realistic