TEAC VR-10/VR-20 = Tascam DR-08 in Japan

[sunjan]

Just noticed these out:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.teac.co.jp/audio/teac/vr20/&ei=VgvDS43bE476Ocn4_JYE&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAcQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3DTEAC%2BVR-20%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DmZd%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:sv-SE:official

Same specs as the DR-08, notice that the VR-10 comes without the Mickey Mouse mics. Maybe that makes it a bit cheaper/smaller? Street price $140 in Japan...

[faninor]

I just ordered a VR-10 from Sound Professionals. Been looking for something to replace my old Microtrack for a while and hopefully this will do nicely. 

[RTD]

sadly only 48khz.

[faninor]

Yes... not the same specs as the DR-08. I'm going to see if I can cancel my order since their site had incorrect specs listed and get the DR-08 instead. Oops!

[sunjan]

Seems that my edits to the original post, and Chris Carfagno's reply (SP) was lost in the crash?!

The bottom line: the VR series is a dumbed down version of the DR-08, 48kHz only.
SP is shipping with English manual, although the TEAC version doesn't seem to be launched anywhere except Japan.

It remains to be seen if you could grab a firmware upgrade for DR-08 and get 96kHz. Worth trying if/when it is released.

[Gutbucket]

sadly only 48khz.

That's my sweetspot. I have no desire to record more time slices than 48,000 per second.  I'd rather the costs that would be requried to sample faster be put into things that matter far, far more, such as a good quality ADC and analog preamp. Especially in a cheap, budget recorder.

48khz seems to be acceptable for spendy, top-notch professional gear such as the Sound Devices 788, the digital Schoeps mics, etc.  Yet in the marketing driven world of small handheld recorders with $2 built-in mics and dirt preamp and ADC cheap chips it's not enough?

[edit]
Oh, just noticed the roll-eyes.  My appologies if that was meant to denote sarcasm.