Not too hijack the subject, but I too have a Mixpre-D and i'm looking for a bitbucket too. That is, just to check....., if you connect a mixpre-d digital to a recorder unit, the levels from the recorder do not need to be set. They are the same, right? (in other words, i don't have to check that, just keep eyes on the mixpre).
Are DR100MKii, PMD661 and Microtrack 2496 the only 'smaller' units on the market (doing 24/96)?