every recorder that has ever been produced has drawbacks of some sort for what we do. these new HDD/CF based recorders are no different, however hit closer than ever on the to the mark of being a "perfect" deck. the $2K+ sound devices 722 is a great piece of gear but that's just the thing.. its two grand!.. I only say the 722 hits the mark because it sounds decent running mic in, has a great line in, AND a digital input (not many units out there do ALL of these things for a reasonable price). Of course there are few recorders that do what the 722 does, but they are even more expensive.. so for the beginner or hobbyist with these recorders out of reach, one must make a compromise or two to get "decent" recordings. It all comes down to a few things, and they are decided by what you plan to do with this recorder.
If you are just going to record line level signals (ie: soundboard, external pre, battery box), then I would go for the edirol R9. Just make sure you have all the necessary essentials in terms of cabling for many situations, as the R9 has an 1/8 inch stereo input only, but with this recorder you can record excellent line level signals. This leads to the next of the few things. If you are going to need a recorder to record ambient far field stuff (ie taping) with a pair of microphones, you will also probably need some sort of power supply to power "decent" microphones. This could either be phantom power box's ( akg b18, ps2, battery box etc), or an external pre with phantom power, like a grace v2, or edirol ua5, or an sd mp2 etc..... With one of these units, you can feed the r9 an excellent line level signal which will produce great recordings.. used c4's > ps2 > r9 would be a sweet sub700 rig with the proper cabling..
The only other thing is whether or not you're computer savvy a bit, as using these compact flash based recorders will require you to use a computer for archiving and processing of recordings, but you might already know that.. so in conclusion.. if you have no problem using a computer for this recording gig you have, I say go with the edirol R9.. long running battery, great line in, small, cf based, and cheap.......