Interesting - perhaps Adorama is paring down it's ProSound inventory - there are many items slated as disco'd.
You could very well be correct.
It has been suggested in other threads that the 701 pre-amps are a bit better quality. That coupled with a good form factor, time code and camera trigger may make the
701 workable. But - it here is an update to the DR70 at the same pricepoint - i would consider buying 2 (1 as a spare) in lieu of the 701.
NAB is end of April, will take a loaner to Europe for the first round...
The 701D certainly does have better preamps than the DR-70D - for one thing, the opamps it uses are superior. But the DR-680 mkII will also have better preamps, and for the same $600 price you get
six of them. I don't know that they are the same preamp circuit, but the critical specs are identical (EIN, distortion, S/N ratio). There's a local professional location sound recording company I know that uses the 680 for low-track-count sessions. So this is why I say that unless you need the camera triggering, the DR-680 mkII presents a better value from a pure audio recording standpoint.