Feature:
I live trigger my own drum samples by hand on a remote keyboard, and play my own bass lines so I haven't fiddled with the built-in rhythm sequencer. This Zoom is a work of metal art, nice and heavy. It would have been cool to have dedicated knobs for Pan, Low/Mid/High per track, but hey, it's no real big deal doing it this way - at least there won't be any of those knobs getting dirty and crackly!

Quality:
It seems great.

Value:
When you've grown up in an era when 16 tracks meant tens of thousands of dollars and huge 1" tape media, desk-sized mixing boards, rackmounted outboards even for simple processing, and separate mixdown units like a 1/2 track, or DAT, the $599. for this unit is ridiculously cheap. Like discovering you can get a new Bentley at the car lot for $5000.

Desirability:
It's brushed metal, not gray plastic. It's compact and meaty. It does what you want...

Sound:
As one who has spent some 30 years tracking with those who have put $15,000 and up into their Tascam and Otari open reel project studios, sat in with those who've bought time in quarter mil.+ studios with 2" tape machines and 6 foot tall rack mounts, and fiddling endlessly (and often haplessly) with cassette machines, I've got to say that the initial 2 weeks I've just had with my new little Zoom HD16 has been my most magical and best sound experience, bar none. My purchase of this thing came in a very weird way. Some months back, I learned that my coworker's son was getting his start to become a pro wrestler, and was already doing arena exhibitions. I asked if he had entrance music, and since he didn't I offered to get something together. In the process I'd gotten so frustrated with the results I was getting that I nearly tossed my Portastudio 414 across the room. The Zoom was a spontanious midnight purchase, whipping out the plastic... The next day I thought, "What the heck have I gotten myself into!?! I'm a analogue guy! A linear tape and dedicated-knobs-on-the-board type dude! I'm too old for this...Can I even live beyond tape hiss?!" I'd long suffered a horrendous "learning failure" with my dust covered Boss DR5, which for me has always been a soft button nightmare...It would probably be more realistic for me to somehow become a Kung Fu master and horizontally walk up the side of a tree. Anyhow, after an initial slight freakout, I read through a few key sections of the Zoom manual, plugged in my elderly Ensoniq VFXsd and kept getting those "ah-ha" moments. For my initial project, I've just used a little itty bit of it's features, keeping it to an analogue deck mentality; not even trying to use the built-in rhythm feature, or digitally ping-ponging, etc. Trying to think along the lines of just filling up some tracks while presetting the internal effects for each; learning I could keep it simple by just plugging whatever instrument into the 1st jack ("activating" the jack with it's on/off button)and assigning it to whatever track by pushing the button to whatever track (red glow=active/record; green glow=monitor/playback). Every track then automatically feeds and stacks into the Master track. Simple. Those of us who've used analogue Portastudios know the often futile struggle that it takes to get those tracks to sound truly "musical", beyond what otherwise sounds like four cheesy cassette boom boxes wired in series. Not so with this Zoom! I feel I could actually go ahead and burn a respectable and actually quite "presentable" CD for live auditorium mains playback right from the raw unpanned/unprocessed tracks! It seems to be that stinkin' good. But I'm gonna fiddle with it some in mixdown mode, do my pans and assigned processing and see how much further it can progress. To me the unit sounds pretty warm, and not at all digitally harsh and "gatey".

Ease of Use:
This unit seems to be EXTREMELY musical, even right out of the box, in comparison to analogue cassette. The learning curve for using it LIKE one would an analogue deck is not all that bad. Make sure to read up on the basic operation sections in the manual before turning it on. You have to fiddle with it a bit, but do it wisely.

Support:
I've so far had no contact with Zoom.

Overall:
This Zoom meets all my needs.

Feature:
Ok, the 'features' section gets a 10. Why? Well, because this thing let's you record 8 channels at a time with 8-XLR in's, 8-1/4", TRS-ins (two of which have hi-z switches for added guitar frequency boosting), and EVERY SINLGE INPUT (all 8 of em') HAS 48V PHANTOM POWER!!! That's just plain sick, especially since I use 5 mics which need this. Does any other 16-tracker boast that capability...didn't think so...

Quality:
Wow..that's about all I can say. This thing is sturdy to the max! It's soooo much heavier and sold metal-feeling than all of the other recorders in it's league (I've had the opportunity to mess around with the Yamaha & boss 16 trackers...and also the Zoom's predecessor, the MRS-1608). This thing has taken alot of bumps and shady, backroad car rides in nothing more than it's original carboard box...and it still works like the day I got it (about a year ago).

Value:
This is another '10' for the HD16. It out-preforms at least it's Yamaha and Boss competitors (like I said, I've tested all three), and it's better built than both of them as well, and it costs waaaay less than them, too...therefore...it gets a '10' for value. I'd easily have paid an extra $200 or $300 for this unit, it's a total steal at $700.00!

Desirability:
Well, I have it...therefore "I want it"... ...if my HD16 broke, I'd totally buy another one.

Sound:
It sounds fantastic! Especially for being a 16-bit recorder (with "24-bit conversion" of course...). Seriously though, it sounds awesome. The built-in effects and preset can be a little bit 'toy-ish' or 16-bit sounding...but if you mic your amps and everything (with halfway decent mics) and record that way, you can get superb results with this unit.

Ease of Use:
Somewhat intuitive. The instructions arn't the best, but instructions ALWAYS suck (especially when they're from another country). Basically, you'll have to do a few simple "starter projects" first so you can learn your way around, but after that (unless you have no recording experiece whatsoever), you should be fine. It's all about mic'ing techniques people....no matter what unit or method you use to record.

Support:
I'll say '7' just to be fair, because technically I've never needed them for anything, so I can't rightly give them a '10' or a '0'

Overall:
My band's CD sounds like we recorded it at a serious, pro-studio in LA, when in fact it was done quickly in a dirty basement with the Zoom HD16 and a couple decent mics. I'm not sure what the last couple of reviews here were talking about (and I'm not sure it's fair to give an accurate review of the HD16's features, sound, & use if yours was DOA...your local music vendor or where ever you bought it from should have fixed that for you, without having to deal with Zoom's support), but mine has been all but lifechanging! I give the Zoom HD16 a solid 9-9.5 overall...just cause nothing's perfect.