this or that

I looked into buy Boss and Yamaha, but I went with a Zoom MRS1608, I've had it over a year and it does fine by me. It had an important feature for me that the others didn't have, a competely programable drummer ( and it's doesn't whine) Not to mention the price was better. But that was me, of course you have to decide if a particular unit has what you need.
That being said, I doubt the sound recording quailty of any units in that range vary that much, unless of course one is 16 bit verses 24 bit, stuff like that.
One thing I would look at though is the units features concerning it's ability to mix, a parameter eq is really nice, also how easy is it to get your raw tracks off the unit and to a PC if that is something you'll be wanting to do.
But back to sound quality, before purchasing I was also concerned about sound quality, and found the advice hard to come by, as how many people ever really put units side by side and test them for sound quality. Not to mention measure 'sound quality' is such a hard think to measure with so many variables in play.
At first I thought the sound quality of Zoom was lacking, but after learning more about how to use it and improving my recording techniques I found I could get some farily decent records, consider this is 'home recording' which leads me to a final point.
That point being, most people have a lowly opinion of such all-in-one units (which I find amusing having heard some of their recordings), this forum being no execption.So you may not get much response to your post here, or you may get some hi-brow dismissing comments.
But I wouldn't let that concern you. With a half way decent mic(s) and good technic, good musicianship, you'll can do as good and often much better than folks with much better or should I say more and more expensive hi-brow gear.
Bottom line, while considering price, try to get the unit that fits your needs best.

First of all, THANKS for the reply. Really appreciate it. I think I'm going for the yamaha. The boss has the cosm effects and such, but that's not really what pulls me towards recording. I've listed the most features down here. What would you guys prefer?

AW1600 Yamaha

- usb2.0 drag and drop
- 24 bit recording
- pitch fix
- 8 tracks at 24 bit recording
- 8 virtual tracks per physical track
- 40 gb harddisk
- built in cd-rw
- 24 bit a/d and d/a converters
- 4 band equalizer on all mixer inputs and recorder tracks.
- 8 xlr/trs mic/instr inputs (with phantom power)
- Hi-Z (direct guitar input)
- quick loop sampler
- memo sound function
- 2 high performance assignable effect processors.
- independant monitor and headphones out
- storing up to 99 mixes to save

BR1600 Boss

- 8 xlr/trs mic/instr inputs
- 16 tracks, with 16 virtual tracks so 256 virtual tracks
- 40 gb harddisk
- 24 bit recording
- usb 2.0
- cd/rw drive
- COSM (boss gt6) effects for guitar bass and vocals
- vocal tool box for pitch corrections and vocal harmonies
- equalizers for each track and 8 compressors
- mastering tool kit with multiband compressor for mix on cd
- drumkit and looptracks

I have a feeling (though I'm not sure about it since I didn't test it) that the yamaha is a bit more of a quality product than the boss. Opinions?

thanks,

Jimmy

boss-yamaha

What are you going to use the unit for, recording a band live ? lay down all your own tracks ? other ? Which begs the question how many tracks will you need to record simultaniously.
Have you found the manuals for those units on line and read them ?
Be carefull about the recording/playback specs, like 16,24 bit, it could be 24 bit when doing 8 tracks and 16 bits when dong more than 8, so you check into that.
Preferably you want parameteric eqs, much better than standard bass, mid, treble. If you don't understand the difference, read up on it.
Make sure you understand how the tracks actually work, that is they may say 16 tracks, but some of those are stereo tracks, which means one fader will control 2 tracks when you mix down, is that good or bad ? Depends what you are doing.
There is about 300 bucks difference in those units....
How long have those units been on the market, in that will there be a new model coming out soon, in which case the price of those units will get pushed down.
The impression I get, and it my not be correct, so check it out, but that the Boss is more gear towards guitarist wanting to do their guitar thing with a recorder.
My Zoom has loads of features I never use, but sounded appealing when I bought it.
Once again...what are you going to record ?

Again...thanks for your info! It's really appreciated over here:)

My goal is to record a band live, as well as lay down a song track by track. I've figured that for the time being, I have enough with 8 tracks being recorded at once, more is maybe for the future.

I've read a lot (if not the whole) of the manuals. I've read lot's of reviews and user reviews and can't really decide which one suites me the most. So I got my *ss over to the musicstore yesterday (which was an hour drive!) and played with both machines a little bit. I think the boss is more of a guitarist machine, while the yamaha has more of an overall better feeling. I'm pretty sure it's not gonna be the boss.
While playing with all the recorders there I saw that next to the yamaha and the boss, the korg d3200 is available as well. This one is 200 euro's more expensive. Of course I couldn't help but play with that one as well. And I REALLY liked it. I'm thinking of buying that one now. So the boss is out of the picture, and the korg has taken the leadspot for now:P After spending a lot of time (again) on the net reading user reviews and everything I could find on the unit's I wonder if someone here has any experience with them.?

In two weeks I will have enough money to start my home studio, and in two weeks I will buy one of them:P

so replies, suggestions, advise, it's all welcome!;)

thanks..

Jimmy

more

Jimmy,
Well if you have a store there where you can touch and see a unit to buy that is an advantage and a key point in determining what to buy as you can always just bring it back to the store with problems or concerns.
A suggestion, if you haven't done it already.....check out some of the online forums particular to the brand you are after like
http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/
I just did a quick search and found that one there are probably more. Those kind of brand/unit particular forums are really helpfull before and after you get a unit.
I'm sure folks on a Korg forum would tell you all their likes and dislikes about a particular unit. And how good it is for doing what you want it for.
That Korg d3200 looks like the unit to get in the price range.