Feature:
This unit doesn't come with any extra covers to protect it but since it's made of plastic it is pretty tough. Some reviewers have complained that the unit is made out of plastic but I'm glad it is because plastic is far more durable than metal. This is a well thought out recorder. No complaints.

Quality:
I like the quality of this unit. No complaints. I am going to buy the protective cover/tripod for this though.

Value:
Good value for the money.

Desirability:
Of all the units out there (M-Audio, Zoom, Marantz, etc.)this is the one that has been designed with the "Sex Appeal". It just looks good.

Sound:
I find the sound of this unit very good. I also think the reverbs presets are good I only wish I could record with them instead of just playback. The included microphone is very good and I have had no problems with hiss or distortion, however the mics are sensitive and pick up everything.

Ease of Use:
Very easy to use. Even the battery replacement is no big deal. You just have to be careful when you change the batteries. Its easy once you get the hang of it. The manual is easy to use but you don't really even need to read it because this unit very user friendly.

Support:
Good support from Roland but haven't had to contact them.

Overall:
The only thing I will buy for this unit is the case/tripod and maybe the external microphone. I plan on using this unit for years to come.

Feature:
The battery life seems pretty good. I'm using NiMH 2500 mA energizers, and recorded for an hour and a half straight without any dip in the battery level. My only major complaint with the R9 as a HiMD replacement is the inability to split and splice together adjacent tracks. This means that if you want to record an entire show, you have to record the whole thing as one file and split it up on a computer later. A minidisc recorder will allow you to insert and remove track marks at will. A big improvement over the R1 is the input control. The R1 has a dial for this, which is not great if you'd like to throw the unit in your pocket or a bag. This unit has two buttons for input control, which can be locked with the hold switch.

Quality:
It seems pretty sturdy so far, with the exception of what seems to be a really crappy cover for the battery/sd card slot/usb port area. I bought a warranty from the store because of just this!

Value:
Probably the best live recorder for the money on the market today.

Desirability:
Definitely not as sexy as the HiMD recorder, but leaps and bounds above the R1 and the M-Audio MicroTrack.

Sound:
I have a Sony HiMD MZRH10 and the sound quality on the R9 is just as good. The built in mic so far sounds great(I've had it for two days), although it's not ideal if you're recording live, since you'd want something shock mounted in that situation to avoid bump sounds.

Ease of Use:
I found this very easy to use, although I'm tech savvy. I've had to refer to the manual only once so far, to find out how to delete a track, which I didn't find intuitive. Otherwise, input level is easily modified as mentioned above, as opposed to my HiMD recorder, which always required several rushed steps to get the sound I wanted.

Support:
No Experience.

Overall:
I'm very impressed so far. I'm just bummed that it lacks track marking capability.

Feature:
I would love a volume rotator knob rather than a button you have to punch to change levels but that's probably just me.

Quality:
The "flimsy" and "light" comments baffle me. It's SMALL, it's not a studio recorder that sits in a rack. Rate it for what it is.

Value:
Tried a couple of others and sent them back.

Desirability:
Again, not sure what number rank to assign to "I want it" when I already own it.

Ease of Use:
Someone said easy as a cell phone. It's quite a bit easier than that if you use all the features of both.

Support:
not sure how to put a number on this since I have not needed support.

Overall:
Might be the best electronic investment I've ever made. Wonderful for the money.

Feature:
This thing is versitile I will say that!!

Quality:
Its delicate, but light. Expect to take the same care of this as you would a expensive mic.

Value:
Awsome for what it is...

Desirability:
Great device

Sound:
Hmmm this depends on what you are recording and what you are using it for. I use the R-09 for many things. For interviews with bands as a portable recording unit it is pretty handy. The AGC has sound altering qualities but if you use the manual volume control you get a pretty decent sound. It really depends on your source; the best sound I have used the R-09 with is to mix down audio into an MPS or wav from a mixing program. You get a really good sound. The mics are OK on it comparable to a RODE NT5.

Ease of Use:
Its about as easy to use as a cell phone, if you can't get that then you shouldn't be buying recording equipment.

Support:
Never needed

Overall:
It good, check out our practice recordings, we got an alright sound for us to work with. www.thelifeforms.com

Quality:
Quality is great. The people who are complaining about the sliding battery cover are being ridiculous. The cover is sturdy enough. The thing is made of plastic, not steel. There is a weird thing it does, however. When recording in a car, or in a small room, I was getting some unexplained noise, which at first I thought was electromagnetic interference, but it turned out to be that the built-in microphones are sensitive to sudden changes in room air pressure. If you are trying to record in a moving car, or in a small room with the door being opened and closed, you might want to try an external microphone.

Value:
It is a great recorder. It is well worth the money.

Sound:
I use it for recording speech, nature sounds, and sound effects. It is an excellent recorder. In certain conditions, with the built-in microphones, there is a little bit of hiss. With an external microphone, the quality is great.

Feature:
AGC and incremental gain control are the best features. I wish the unit has the ability to break up long files like Dm-10 (or indexing)

Quality:
I won't complain about the plastic, to keep weight and cost down. The design looks very good. However, individual control, (the control pad) is kind of loose, slightly rattles.

Value:
for $399, it is 3 times more expensive than Olympus DM-10 which I also used. Peak control for me is very important (which dm10 doesn't have) so it's hard to compare value. but I still think this unit is somewhat overpriced.

Sound:
see below. I wish there is more clarity. Maybe due to omni mics used. hope they would consider putting in X-y (like zoom h4)

Ease of Use:
very intuitive.

Support:
have not used any.

Overall:
my use is to record our non-pro choral rehearsals and our own concerts. The sound quality is quite good and obviously better than that of DM-10 that I had been using, but not WAY better. choral recordings sound kind of muffled and the reverberation (not the add-on playback effect) sounds stronger than reality. Could be the effect of the omni mics, which pick up signals from all directions in our stone gothic church. Maybe I was expecting too much (r-9 costs 3 times as much),Compared with DM-10, the sound quality is definitely not the "night and day" difference I had hoped for. The mics are not as sensitive as I wish. For our 40-people rehearsals I am setting the gain at 20 on high gain at about 25' away. I could imagine if it is a really quiet concert (which is quite frequent for choral music) I might have to push the gain all the way to 30 max and still not be able to pick up the soft angelic soprano hum. Of course, with DM-10 I can't even control the gain and prevent clipping with AGC. This alone makes this a keeper. Overall, because of the AGC and incremental gain control, I am glad I purchased the unit.

Feature:
everything about the unit is great except the above mentioned lacking feature. it would be nice to have at least one uncompressed format recording. The "ultra" batteries only last for about 4 hours in this thing - it really sucks the power. thankfully they included an AC adapter with the pkg.

Quality:
Not all that thrilled about the battery compartment door design. that could have been rethought....

Sound:
Reall great device, outstanding recording. HOWEVER, I **REALLY** hope they update the OS to include an express-fast forward feature. When you have an hour or more of recording, it takes FOREVER to get to the end of the piece. If your finger gets tired of holding down the fast forward button for minutes at a time, you have to start all over again. This is really a serious defect in the operation of the machine but doesn't affect the quality of the recording. Doesn't Roland have usability testing procedures like most consumer products companies? If they did, they would have realized that they needed to add one more timer and skip feature to the software....

Ease of Use:
Very easy to use.

Support:
called tech support this AM on another issue unrelated to the R-09 and it was great.

Feature:
No accessories although I wish the case came with the unit.

Quality:
It is made of plastic and I did drop it once causing the right side to almost come off. That worries me!

Value:
The price could be a bit lower for what it's worth.

Desirability:
I use this to tape rehearsals and what ever I decide to tape out in the field and, although it could use some improvement I like mine! i have used it to make some recordings and it works pretty good.

Sound:
I rated it an 8 out of 10 simply because when you Ware a set of binaural mics, you have to be careful because when you touch the display and if the cable is not shielded you get a 60 Hz hum that will come through on your recordings.

Ease of Use:
The menus don't rap and that's a good thing for those of us who are visually impaired. there is not learning curve although you do have to have someone write down the menus for you n a text file, but all in all, great product!

Support:
No I have not delt with roland but i did deal with where I did buy it from and they were understanding. I'm hoping roland will take in to consideration the hum thing and will design a better or improved product.

Overall:
I like the easy of use. i don't like the fact that one drop sent the right side of the thing almost off the unit.

Feature:
Wish it had the ability to play just one file and stop (maybe they will add this on their next firmware upgrade). It either plays all files once through or all files continuously. Instead it has shuffle play which is almost useless for this type of recorder. I wish it came with a protective case (even just a cheap one), but you have to buy it separately along with a mini tripod stand.

Quality:
Quality is excellent except for the plastic case (they should use metal). Battery compartment is a joke, seems fragile and doesn't let the recorder stand securely upright. The worst is that this cover must be opened to access the USB port. Other than that, the buttons and such feel solid.

Value:
This is the best unit of this type for the money that exists.

Desirability:
The appeal of this unit is in its recording quality, ease of use, functionality and small size.

Sound:
Sound is great. Some case noise when starting a recording because the rec button is burried inside of four noisy buttons that are close to the mics, and there is no ability to remotely start the recording. No wind screen. This recorder picks up every sound very clearly (even in the lowest quality mode).

Ease of Use:
Ease of use is great. Quick to get to the functions you need. Also very intuitive (except for operating the battery cover - but don't worry, there are clear instructions for this).

Support:
Edirol is a good company that is fairly easy to contact for answers about their products.

Overall:
Edirol got it right this time and added essential features that they somehow missed on the R-1 (like forward/reverse and necessary info shown during a recording). They also got rid of some useless features of the R-1 (like the crazy sound effects which could corrupt the file if activated during recording). Smaller, longer battery life, more features than R-1, and excellent quality recordings, this unit is worth every cent provided it ends up being reliable.

Feature:
Overall features are good as the unit is very easy to use. We tend more to notice what we think would be helpful: - A STANDARD LINE OUT - EASIER USB ACCESS without to have to remove the unit from the protection leather case (I use it) and open the trap. - A SPLIT FILE POSSIBILITY. Edirol has just issued a split function in V1.30, but it only works a record time. Stop/record was doing the same thing before. Splitting at playback time would be very helpful to get rid of any useless recorded material in case we are short of memory. Would also be easier to find the recordings. - A MARKING POSSIBILITY. As it is impossible to start the scanning from the end of the file, it can be very painful in case of long recording to scan the all thing to find what we are looking for. - A TITLE PRESET POSSIBILITY. All recordings start by R09... Makes sense, but useless really! Would be nice (as on the R4) to be able to choose the first letters.

Quality:
Looks flimsy, but is not in reality. I am very cautious with it, but I am worried about how the jack plugs will last. I read someone who has had problems with them.

Value:
Very good value, because it is a very versatile recorder. Could as well be used to play MP3 songs, used as a standard recorder, with internal or external mics for live recordings. All that in a small packaging. I love the fact is uses standard AA batteries you can find everywhere.

Sound:
Very good sound. Very decent internal mics, but of course they pick up all the noise. Very convenient in the field though. Very good quality also in MP3 mode. MAJOR PROBLEM; The hiss on the headphone. Seems very related to the impedance of what is connected. I tried to plug Sennheiser wireless phones. Almost impossible to listen to... I thought it came from HF comming from the wireless unit but I tried different things but nothing worked. Low impedance headphones seems to work better,

Ease of Use:
Nothing to say. No manual is needed.

Support:
Never used.

Overall:
Very good recorder. Has everything needed. I looked at other simila products before buying it. Still think I made the best choice and I would buy the same.