building quality (like most of the Sony ES serie) presence of mic inputs sound quality

runs hot (no effect on quality)

I use this DAT recorder for microphone recordings of choirs and church organs. This is my first DAT, in the past I used a Nakamichi 550 portable compact cassette deck. The first thing you notice is the absence of noise in low level recordings. The second surprice was the AD/DA converter: the sound quality of my NAD 5000 CD player (about 10 years old) via the DA converter of the DAT deck was a few classes higher. The main reason for buying this deck was the presence of microphone inputs with a good pre-amp. Another choise would be a compact portable DAT recorder but I heard of a lot of problems especcially with the small connections. I bougth the DAT recorder from a private person in The Netherlands for EURO 360 (approx US $ 330). The machine was hardly used.

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only compact cassette (Nakamichi) and CD-recorder (Pioneer 509) this machine sounds (much) better

Very well built. Quick transport response. Nice remote. Coax *and* optical inputs and outputs.

Decks runs too hot. Doesn't keep track of total hrs, no error counter.

I have had a Sony PCM-R300 for a few years. The R300 is the 2-motor entry level semi-pro deck. I have liked it very much, but I wanted to move to a 4-motor transport.

Hence, the ZA5ES (also matches an ES MD deck I have). The ZA5ES is the 4-motor ES consumer version of presumably the PCM-R500 pro deck.

The ZA5ES follows in the tradition of other Sony ES products. Built like a tank. Controls have very good tactile feedback, and the transport is a lot faster responding than the R300.

But for me, its inability to track total head usage, and the lack of an error counter (with which you can tell if the heads need to be cleaned or not), plus the fact the tapes come out of the machine very hot to the touch (I'm sure not very good for the binders, etc., used for adhering the magnetic particles to the tape itself) are deal breakers.

I'm going to look into the R500 and the Tascam DA-40 (new version of the DA-30 mk II).

It's a shame too, because it is a very well built machine.

$1600 list, ~$1200 street; I paid $700 on ebay.

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Sony PCM-R300