I don't know to what extent the stuff is really new to anyone. Even in solid-state recorders, for Marantz at least, the 660 is a follow-on to the 690, 690 II, 670, and maybe the 671. You'd think they'd understand the issues pretty well by now. I believe Tascam has also made some solid state recorders in the past. In a more substantial sense, CF recorders are just DAT recorders with the VCR-like tape mechanism removed and replaced with computer media, and a little extra firmware to handle stuff like the file system, and DAT has been around for decades. Tascam has made lots of portable DAT recorders before, and this new CF recorder in fact re-uses the chassis from one of those DAT's. SD is more in the Nagra class and the engineers must have worked on other such devices before. I realize not everyone is a concert taper but they must have been selling those DAT recorders to -somebody-. It doesn't occur to me that musicians wouldn't want good preamps just like tapers want. (I can understand ENG users being slightly less concerned, but they weren't using DAT much). FLAC is simply a no-brainer, it baffles me that no CF recorders have it, if they bother supporting WAV.