Thanks for your help... went ahead and bought a Sharp MD-MT290 and so far am pretty enthusiastic...
only recorded one show (Bruce Cockburn w/Julie Wolf on keys) in Italy and it sounds pretty good transferred to CD, even via the analog port. The PR wasn't great to begin with, but I can't discern any significant difference between it and the same tour recorded with my Aiwa DAT and the same Core mikes in the UK three weeks back. I agree I should find a used mains deck with optical out for transfer.
I think the reason a lot of MD stuff sounds bad is that people tend to use the sort of small Sony mikes "recommended for MD" in stores.
Plus points: practically weightless in a rucksack and tiny, easily concealable; battery life- I recorded this show and have listened to it 4 X using a single generic AA duracell- type battery and it still shows 2/3 full!; grey plastic case but tough seeming, more so than some of the smaller, rather tinny looking metal ones; has a 4LP mode which obviously cuts quality badly but allows 320 mins! of walkman type on the move listening on one disc
minus points - like all but the very top end MDs, this has no illumination on the panel so you need a lightsource to alter levels etc. The remote has no display at all.
-- the unit does allow level changes on the fly but when I made a couple of radical, large adjustments (which one shouldn't do anyway) it put a half-second blip in the recording where it "caught up." Small adjustments don't do this.
- couple of short bursts of interference I think from cellphones going off nearby- seems sensitive to this.
Overall though, a deal at the price, with transformer, bag, AA niMh rechargeable, optical lead, remote, thrown in, and if anything did happen to it, a lot less painful than losing a DAT.