Any of your valued opinions would be appreciated concerning the new recorder being offered by Roland/Edirol. Their R-1 WAV/MP3 Recorder sounds sweet and I like that it has USB2 connectivity. The battery options are 2 AAs or a wall wort AC adapter. There are no noise issues because it's solid state design records to a compact flash card.

more here about R-1 specs

Does anyone own/use one of these recorders? Are they truly the cool new tool to buy? Does the hefty $400 price tag make you shy away? Does the 2.5 hours of recording time and/or 5.5 hours of playback make this a poor choice compared to the MD players?

Inquiring minds need some guidance. Brothers and sisters can you spare an opinion?