There's a brief discussion on the TapersSection.com forum of a new
Fostex digital recorder called the FR-2 LE. The recorder was shown at
the Fostex booth at the Musikmesse conference in Frankfurt two weeks
ago. The new recorder will offer most of the FR-2's features at a
lower price point.
The discussion and one photo can be found here:
http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=62698.from1144559658#new
The photo shows the FR-2 LE to be significantly smaller than the FR-2
in all dimensions. One result is that the FR-2's large, bright LCD
display has been moved from the front of the machine to the top. This
will make the recorder more difficult to use when carried on a
shoulder strap or in a gear bag. (So smaller is not always better.)
I think the new recorder is designed to compete with the the Marantz
PMD671 and Fostex HD-P2. So I expect the FR-2 LE's price to be close
to $1000 when released this Summer.
One advantage of the original FR-2 is that its preamp has lower
self-noise than competitors with similar prices:
Marantz PMD671 $950 65dB signal to noise ratio
Tascam HD-P2 $1000 > 55dB
Fostex FR-2 $1300 > 87dB
(What these numbers actually signify is an open question. It is true,
however, that the FR-2 adds less preamp noise than the other two.)
The preamp section of the FR-2 LE is supposed to be improved over the
FR-2. If this is true, then the FR-2 LE certainly will be the
performance leader at the $1000 price point.
It will be interesting to learn more about the feature set of the FR-2
LE as its release date approaches.
--oryoki
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