[Frosty]

Mike, the reality of the situation is, as far as sound goes, the Edirol
andZoommodels are going to sound similar, with their cheap built-in
preamps and mics. Sound quality, as we know, is subjective anyway.
Making the right/best choice comes down to other things.

Lurker jumping into the middle of this conversation. I'm not an audio
pro, I'm an acoustic musician interested in live recording in my home,
or away, of unamplified acoustic instruments. I own the Microtrac,
R-09 and H-4 (not to mention a few minidisc portables). To my ears,
what I hear captured by the H-4 with it's internal mics sounds better
than what I hear with the other devices. I don't deal with specs on
audio devices, but the H-4 has much less hiss on playback and the
sound of the instrument is much more realistic to me.

The size of the R-09 can't be beat, but I agree it is subjective and I
think the H-4 sounds better!