Hi, everyone,
I just sprung for an MRS-1044, and so far am pretty impressed for the price. I also have a CDX-1 (and a Studio Pak for my Stand-alone).
I must say that I really like the integerated drum machine, and think the drum sounds depend a lot on the speakers (e.g., whether there is a good woofer).
I find the computer requires quite a learning curve, and am not very impressed with SONAR's dxi effects at this stage in the development, but for percussion, Fruity Loops and Battery are incredible additions. I have an RT-323, and have sampled its complete library for use with the above.
But even with all that, I really found that I missed my Tascam 464, and its user interface. I did have one glitch with the 1044 (I lost patterns I was programming), but it only happened once, and everything is churning along well now.
I do like Zoom's drum sounds (at least
the RT-323, and
the MRS-1044 seems close enough); my only complaint is the lack of an eighth note beat so that I can program in meters like 7/8.
Of course, if you need multiple inputs, go for somehing else, but I think Zoom (like Rolan/CDX-1) made some very solid choices in the engineering tradeoffs, as long as you know what they are, and there are no show-stoppers....