Being a long-time user and supporter of Edirol/Roland decks, I have no reason to believe the R-26 is anything but solid. The spot where they dropped the ball with it, IMHO, was not including a digital input on it. Could've been a serious game changer.
The PMD-661 is no slouch, either. Great sounding, easy-to-use recorder that's even better with the Oade mod. Doesn't hurt that it has the SPDIF input, too.