SD Card compatibility with DP-24

[Noney]

Just wanted to share some information I learned about SD cards and the DP-24 (and I'm guessing the range of DP products....). If this is old news to you, please ignore. As everybody knows, the DP units are rather finicky when it comes to SD cards, which is why it's always a wise idea to use one of the "approved" cards that Tascam lists on their website. I recently purchased a DP-24 and immediately consulted this list so I could order a 32GB card and I experienced severe sticker shock when I started looking for cards that exactly matched the part number on the Tascam list. Since all of the part numbers for SanDisk cards had a "J" near the end of their part number, I suspected that these were country-specific codes and the "J" was in reference to Japan, where Tascam (or at least the people checking the SD cards) is located. I decided to contact SanDisk directly to ensure that I didn't blow a bunch of money on a card that wouldn't perform properly. Here is what they told me: The last block of characters on the part number for their SD cards are country codes. For instance, the SanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC 32GB card shows a part number of SDSDXPA-032G-J35 on the Tascam list. The "J35" block is the country code for Japan. This same card carries the part number SDSDXPA-032G-A75 when it is sold in the United States, the "A75" block being the country code for the Americas. SanDisk verified that as long as the first two blocks of characters match, the performance parameters will be identical.

The Panasonic and Lexar cards in the Tascam list also carry a "J" near the end of their part numbers, so I'm guessing this same "country code" issue exists with these cards as well, although I have not verified that.

Sure makes shopping for cards easier (and cheaper).....