Well, I've been moving between my new Tascam DP-02CF and a used VS880EX, trying to settle on one, and it's tough.
The VS880EX has multliple inputs and nice FX, but it's a complete bastard to use. The manual is terrible and often just plain wrong, and the steps needed to do fairly simple things are often torturous. It also has the irritating problem of not picking up the first second or so of audio from a synced machine. On the other hand, it's well catered for with digital ins and outs and offers virtual tracks etc.
The DP-02CF is very basic in comparison - 2 ins, no effects, no virtual tracks and limited time recording to compact flash. But it also has the advantages of compact flash, a USB port for streaming a mix straight to a PC, a quick and easy interface and (so far) rock-solid MIDI sync. It'll render a project as per-track wavs to the CF, which makes transfer to a PC nice and easy but lets me stick to the hands-on hardware experience up to that point.
I'm thinking the DP-02CF is the way to go, chiefly because the VS880EX can be such a monumental pain in the ass. I really wish it was more fun to use, though, because I prefer it in a lot of areas.
I almost put a bid in on an AW16G earlier, but gave myself a good shake and snapped out of it because I'd just end up trying to choose between three recorders instead of two.
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