Obviously these seem to dominate over DAT now, but reading some of the intro stuff here, in '04 the 744 was just coming into play? Edirol (or Roland, I don't know who owns who) was just coming out with their line of recorders? The JB3 pretty much owned the market in the beginning of HD recorders?
I know nothing about the history and loyalty to DAT or mini disc recording, but I had no idea compact recorders were really coming into play only in the last 6 years. I've read some DAT question boards, but would love to know why only now did HD recorders just blow up. (BTW I'm assuming blinded loyalty/lack of vision because this is clearly a more cost and space effective means than DAT).
(and on a side note, with all this apple nonsense exploding in the same general time frame (with the iPod/iPhone), how have they not come up with a quality recording device?)
Edit: this question comes from reading the "TS knowledge base / archive" on recorders so a mod might want to update this. When theres "not a lot known at this point," about Edirol's R1, and the R09 and HR are currently such a hit, might want to bump that and not DAT info. Just saying. Then again, I, like most beginners just go straight to asking questions and not looking around first, so I'm not really one to talk. Constructive criticism?