"Sleek and hi-tech, sweet!"

Feature:
Came with a 128mb sd card. Didn't know about it, it was just there, cool. No adapter, bummer, but I can use the one from my old zoom acoustic guitar effector, same specs. Gotta admit, the sd memory got me. Use SD in my cell phone, convenient. Really dig the electret mic, don't even have to carry a mic along for informal recordings. So much for the money, hard to beat. Multi-effects, digital mixer, recorder, rhythm machine with bass sounds, very compact. Like the battery capability in an 8 track recorder. I wish it had an optical our to run real time sound to the pc. That'd make this baby super versatile.

Quality:
Tough question. Had it all of half a day. Have to admit that my mrs-1044 just died and I'm a bit nervous about this breaking down on me. But comparatively, it's the same number of tracks, a third the size, higher recording quality, 24 bit, saves to sd(no moving hard disk or usb, and it costs less than my old recorder. And I didn't see anything close in the same price range. It looks good, better than my old recorder and buttons and faders feel good. I hope it lasts. I do wish there was a carrying case for it.

Value:
For the price and range of use, nothing compares. Another brand saves to compact flash, which I like, in mp3 format, great for a music player, but the less compressed, the better for recordings IMO.

Desirability:
Torn with this one. My old zoom broke, but this is smaller and uses sd cards, can u tell I like 'em? To be honest, I think the design could be cooler looking, a little color or a new ipod-ish feel would be cool. The zoom recorders seem like clones of themselves. Not too sexy, but I bought it anyway! Sex isn't everything!

Sound:
Just bought this puppy today and threw down a guitar and vocal track with a drum preset backing. For the 10 minutes I spent recording, it sounds amazingly good. I agree with the other review, the line in gain could be better. Then I tried the electret condensor built-in mic, amazing! I could hear myself thinking, it was so sensitive!

Support:
I live in Japan and when I had trouble downloading the upgrades, they sent me the files burned to cd-r. Very helpful.

Overall:
I started with a 4 track cassette, then zoom hard disk recorder, now the mrs-8sd. These days I'm mostly concerned with getting my material in quickly, cleanly, and moving to the pc. Simple is good these days. Saving to sd and converting to wave format with the downloadable software was a snap. I'm hoping this will last at least a few years. Good sampling rates, ease of use, and it gets the job done. For a hobbyist like me, more than satisfactory.