Ken,

A quick check showed the Plextor PX-W1210TSE selling for about $2800. Ouch!

You are paying a very high premium for two reasons. The drive is external and standalone. The drive is SCSI.

I noticed that your recorder has spdif i/o.

Think about this...

Go to your favorite local store that sells computers, (e.g., Circuit City, CompUSA, Walmart, Best Buy,whatever). Buy the cheapest PC they've got without a sound card or CD burner OR simply the cheapest PC they've got with room for a sound card and CD burner. Add/Replace the sound card with a card with spdif I/O (e.g., SoundBlaster Audigy). Add/Replace the CD Burner with a state of the art internal one (e.g., Plextor).

My guess is for well less than $1000 (way less than half the price of the external Plextor) you will have a device with all the functionality of the external Plextor AND all the extra functionality of a PC.