Korg announced at AES what may become the holy grail
of portable field recorders. These are super high
quality 1-bit DSD (Direct Sream Digital) recorders, This is Sony's
super high quality format used for SACD.
These recorders are portable and surprisningly affordable.
They record to internal 20gb hdd's. The smaller mr-1 is a little
bigger than an ipod, and includes 2 balanced connectors on 1/8" jacks and mini mic,
while the bigger table top version includes 48v phantom with what was
described as very transparant and neutral mic pres. The mr-1 uses
LiIon for ~5 hrs recording time, and the bigger mr-1000 uses 8XAA.
Transfers are done with usb2.0. Both recorders include pc/mac software that will convert DSD to any other
format at any bit depth and sampling frequency.
The best thing is the price. mr-1: Streets for somewhere between $600-800,
and the mr-1000 around $1200. Expected to ship early next year, februrary time frame.
I was at AES to check these out in person
and the protos not only sounded great, but felt very sturdy, professional, and robust.
This product is HOT. I expect everyone on this forum is going to want one or the
other (or both!) of these units. I can't WAIT to get my hands on one.
More details here:
http://www.korg.com/gear/info.asp?a_prod_no=MR__Series&category_id=3Mandoman