I just received my R-44 from Sweetwater, and they honoured the original price of $795
This unit, in comparison to others (personally I own the Zoom H4), feels quite solid.. not to say I will be dropping it from any height in the future.. but they seem to have put some thought into the size and robustness of it.
Still playing with all the little knobs, wheels, buttons and hoo-haas in the menus (really got to learn to read a manual one day) and - like so many of these recorders - the headphone monitor pre-amp seems low. I use the H4 with an FP33 and get tremendous volume out of the mixer which works great when doing interviews in loud environments (being able to drown out background and hear the interviewee is priceless). Unsure with the R-44 as I decided not to run out the door and work with it yesterday during my jaunt around NYC (just not enough time to play with it prior to) and stuck with the H4 instead.
Many thanks to those recommendations for run-bags. I am presently using the FP33 Portabrace run with the H4 in the Radio Mic. pocket (which does not allow great access to the H4) which is fine. But ditching the FP33 (which may not happen as a few folks have commented on the low mic input s/n) is something I would love to do and just carry the R-44 and the H4 as a backup (which can really stay in the car).
My first task is to figure out this unit - seems almost as easy as plug 'n play - second task is make a cable to connect the output to my mobile phone microphone input (with a headphone output from the phone too) to do live phoners with my station with the ability to playback soundbites too. I know there is equipment that is made specifically for this purpose - but considering I am doing all this radio bit for free - but I would rather see if I can use this unit to do the above.