How badly do you want to make digital recordings of lectures you hear? Are you willing to shell out around $400 for the product to do this? That is the cost of the new Marantz Professional PMD620, which its maker says has been developed for “professional recording quality in a small, convenient package for hobbyists and professionals alike.”

The Marantz Professional PMD620 is a handheld digital recorder which is small and makes use of SD memory cards for data storage. It offers direct-to-MP3 recording in three quality settings as well as a fully uncompressed WAV format. There’s two built-in condenser microphones and also other input and output options to help you record and manage audio.

Word on A/V Street this week is Marantz, a developer of audio-video gear, is out with a new and highly desired A/V receiver. The Marantz SR8002 is priced at around $2,100.

The Marantz SR8002 is a 7.1-channel receiver loaded to the gills with features. Take a look at this laundry list of its most pronounced ones: HDMI 1.3 repeating capability, HD Radio, THX Select2 processing, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, and dts HD Master Audio as well as MultEQ room correction and calibration technology from Audyssey Laboratories. You also get multi-room signal distribution.