Topic: EDIROL R-44 (PART IV)

[Nick's Picks]

I cooked mine the other night.
came home from a gig, wanted to plug it in and listen to the show..., grabbed the wrong AC adapter....,
no lights.  no power.  nadda.

internal batteries will still power it.
anyone else had this misfortune in the past?

[Gutbucket]

Bummer, wondering if there is an internal fuse that can be easily replaced.

[Ozpeter]

That happened to mine.  It spent a few weeks being fixed - the guy said it wasn't just a fuse - I believe it involved some brain surgery to surface mount components.

[Nick's Picks]

yea, no fuse.  I took it all apart to check.  nothing.
its got to have some sort of circuit protection, but its more than just a fuse. 

[JonesH]

I'm thinking on buying an R44, possibly a modded one when I'm in the states in December. What's the teams collective experience regarding the reliability of the unit?
And what's the general feeling when it comes to a model update?

Thanks from Sweden

[Ozpeter]

There have been few reports of problems - the problem with mine arose under unusual conditions shall we say, and I'm not inclined to blame the unit for the problem that ensued.

And what's the general feeling when it comes to a model update?

You mean, what's around the corner with the next model?   Guesswork.  Better monitoring hopefully (pan and level of output).

[JonesH]

Yeah I hear that. OTOH that shouldn't be much of an issue for me since I plan to do alot of either ORTF+ambience, ORTF + outriggers, AB+ outriggers or AB+ambience. Not so much support mics with this fellow...

Just wouldn't want to go through the hassle of buying it from the states and have a new model pop up next day. Who would?

[Ozpeter]

I get the feeling that Edirol are not into releasing new products at a great rate - more into releasing well designed gear that has a good product life before being eventually superceded.  But who can tell...

[cybergaloot]

You've also got to figure in the state of the economy right now, is this really a good time to roll out a new product? Who is going to buy it if they are tight on money? When you add that there is a new version of SD card coming out and a new version of USB coming out, they would probably wait and incorporate those features. But I'm only guessing.

[DSatz]

A question for those who've had errors or failures with the R-44 and various SD cards: Did the errors always occur either the first time the card was used at all or the first time it was filled to capacity?

In other words, if the recorder can make it through a test recording that fills the card (at the sampling rate and number of tracks that you intend to use for your real recording), can you trust that card from then on?

--best regards

[Nick's Picks]

My errors have only been w/Transend cards, and only affecting channels 1&2 when doing a stereo x 2 setting.

[kirk97132]

My problem was on a first time use.  No issues since the first error so far.  It was a polariod/PNY class4 card

[rigpimp]

I have never had card-related problems.  I returned my NIB 8GB Transcend card once I read there were widespread problems with them.  I happily use the PNY 16GB card made for HD video without any problems.  My backup card is an 8GB Patriot.

[busterr]

I had a perfectly good 8gb Adata class 6 card go dead somewhere between transferring the files, and the next use...it's just dead, nothing recognizes it.

[yltfan]

No problems with my Kingston 16 gig class 4 card... (knock on wood)