First impressions as someone with thousands of hours stealthing HRTF omnis wired up to R-09/M10/A10:
I just recorded 3 nights in a row with it, all successes aside from one set of DPAs needing a new plug (locking right angle plugs ordered).
The PR-2 seems nice on first tries and I was able to learn to turn it on, lock/unlock + start/stop recording, and turn it off entirely by feel without it leaving my pocket before my first show.
I find it a bit difficult to unlock with my non-dominant hand (perhaps partly due to old injuries).
As with the R-09/M10/A10, I can peek at the LEDs looking down into my pocket to confirm operation. They're even more visible up top than the other units.
Levels:
For the A10/M10, I used a battery pack and line-in due to the mic-in having too much gain, but -12dB is enough headroom on the PR-2.
I kept it at 0dB for the DPA 4063 (legacy) and peaked at -3.28dBFS (safe, but too close for comfort) from a solo drummer maybe 10' away.
0dB on the PR-2 is probably close to level 1 (lowest mic-in) on the A10.
I'll go -3dB or even -6dB in many loud situations.
I'll setup a test sometime at home to see how accurate the mic gain adjustment is compared to the actual recording.
Niceties:
It functions fine as a card reader on my Linux workstation depending on port and USB cable.
Unlike the M10/A10, it doesn't stay on and drain battery after unplugging the USB, another plus.
If USB isn't working well with your computer, try a different cable and/or port.
USB ports attached to the motherboard itself are typically the most reliable, as are shorter cables.
Being able to easily replace the batteries is nice, once again.
1.5v rechargeable Li-ion batteries I have from Coast and EBL should work and give maximum voltage to mics. Will test someday...
Expect alkaline and Ni-mh batteries to give mics less power.
Sidus Audio app supports syncing the time from the phone (which is synchronized to the network).
No more digging through menus and trying to get sub-minute accuracy on other recorders.
Tips/notes:
* As others have noted, changing levels from the app slider is tricky.
Instead, use the app to make a new preset for every possible level you might use and change levels by loading presets.
Or just pick a low level, rely on software gain in post, and use a dedicated headphone amp (doubles as a preamp for car stereos) to listen on the trip home.
* Having time synced with your phone also means timestamps from your phone camera can map to times of your recording with 1s accuracy.
It makes mapping still images to audio events easier.
To make tracking recordings easier, I try to take a black photo of my hand covering the lens to get approximate timestamps of gaps in between songs.
In post, I look for black thumbnails in my photo dump for each night to get timestamps for tracking.
(this works with any recorder as I started doing it with the A10 last year, but the PR-2 is easier to get accurate times with)
* I may set the recording mode to Always and just have it start recording once turned on, but that's roughly a 5-6s delay. That should be easier than unlocking while keeping the unit in my pocket in situations where I don't (or can't) have a phone out.
Downsides:
* No 5s pre-record buffer of the M10/A10 (or 10s of the D100)
* 3s hold delay for starting a recording after unlocking (WTF!)
* no start timestamps in filename unlike A10, but the statx(2) birth time as reported by the GNU stat(1) command on most Linux systems seems accurate
(you can also look at the last modification time and subtract the track length)
Other notes:
I've ordered locking right angle 3.5mm connectors (Cable Techniques) since I need to reterminate DPA 4063s anyways due to plug wear (some scratches in sound showing up).
24-bit is fine by me with 144dB dynamic range and DPA 4061/4063s can't handle all of it due to self-noise and venues having well over 20dB ambient noise.
As a C programmer who's dabbled in audio software: native 32-bit float recording is marketing fluff and I archive audio directly to FLAC to save space and storage wear.
I've yet to try DPA 4061s (legacy), as mine are all badly worn (bought used) and also need to be reterminated at some point.
Looking to order DPA 4661 Core+ mics since DPA 4063 are only available in regular Core.
I'll always use right angle plugs if available. They're less likely to act as a lever to rip jacks apart regardless of locking. If it gets misthreaded I can still tape them down more easily and then can be taped down even with non-locking jacks.
EDIT 2026-04-30: apparently locking right angle plugs aren't stereo when hooked up to non-locking jacks.
That means I can't use my heavy duty DPA 4063 mics with my A10/M10, anymore (I still have my standard cable DPA 4063s).
I'm thinking I'll go back to Neutrik 3.5mm right angle plugs for compatibility and use 1" painter's tape to keep plugs from rotating in the jack.
The lower-half of the PR-2 is great for wrapping extra tape around, at least!
Also not a fan of the rubberized texture, in my experience with other products they'll get sticky and nasty in a few years.
