@IanR: Sorry to hear about your negative experience with your equipment. Especially that also trying with the mic-in set to low didn't help either. What was the problem when going that way?
With my LS-10, I can only partly confirm this. As for input levels, yes the line-in is adjustable from quiet to just normal level, but if I want to rec really low line-levels, I can change to mic-in set to low which works very well here. Having this combined line-in range is more than sufficient for my needs.
@spyder9: What do you base "very noisy and thin sounding" on?
I already recorded two live classical concertos and did some experimental outside recordings. With "low-cut" set off, I find the sound to be natural, and completely with enough bass. As for the noise, I only notice it when mic-sense is set to high, but still all my earlier mini-disc recorders and the MT had much higher noise levels, so the LS-10 produces the least noise of all devices I've ever owned.
Best portability, and long-time mp3 recordings (@256mbps) are also important to me, that's why I didn't go for the D50. For my ears, the LS-10 records more than good, but maybe that's from someone who still used tape in his younger days :-)
My only small two complaints: The maximum output level is not extremely high, I'd appreciate if it went a little higher. And I hope the 2GB file limit for WAV (mp3s are 4GB strangely) will be corrected, even more as the manual states a 4GB limit for all files.