Worth sinking some money into a stand-alone HD recorder?

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

In article <1119717554.953524.301050@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com> natevenet@gmail.com writes:

> Hey all. Circumstance has found me the pround owner of an AKAI DR16PRO
> HD recorder. Which would be great, except for the fact that a) it's
> wired for 220V, and b) it doesn't have a hard drive.
>
> My question is, is this going to be a piece of equimpent that is worth
> putting the couple hundred bucks into getting a transformer and HD for,
> or am I better off saving my cash for something else?

It's quite an orphan. It came with a 1 GB SCSI drive, and a 2 GB drive
was optional. I don't know how large a drive it can accommodate, but I
suspect that it's smaller than anything you can buy new today. There
was an option for a graphic user interface (does yours have a VGA card
in it?) and there was also an optional ADAT lightpipe interface.

I can tell you that it's quite an orphan so you won't find any support
for it other than from the rare bird who has one or had one and
remembers something about it. With 16 tracks at 44.1 kHz, you're
burning about 85 megabytes per minute, so a 2 GB drive will give you a
little more than 20 minutes, not terribly useful for live
performances.

If you have any electronic tech smarts or have a service technician
friend you might open it up and see if there's a wiring option for
120V, and if so, keep your eyes open for a small SCSI drive to give it
a whirl. I wouldn't put any money into it myself, but your desires
might be different.

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