Here are today's reports (sorry, no concerts, just foolin' around):
Bad news: Again got only about 3 hours not using phantom power, this time at 24/96. Tomorrow I will try turning off input monitoring, which factory defaults to "on" to see if that helps timing. Also will test the 4 AA batery USB power pack. If you plug in USB power when the machine is off, it goes into charging mode and the switches don't work to turn on record mode, but if the power is plugged in while the machine is running it seems okay, though I still have to confirm that it is charging or drawing on the power.
Good news: correcting for the L/M/H being backwards (i.e., setting the switch to H for line-in), and assuming unitary gain for line-in is max record volume (without the 27 dB menu boost!!!) I get levels that are recognizable. That is, when feeding in the signal from DPA 4060s with a 10 dB boost from the preamp I get roughly comparable results to feeding that signal to my Edirol R1. And the 24/96 signal sounds pretty nice (but need to test with music rather than just ambiant noise).
At 2 GB limit it shuts off and saves the file (though oddly I could not play it back on the Microtrack, while smaller files will play), opens fine in Wavelab with proper 24/96 properties. Also saves the file when power runs out.
The menu choices and navigation iare intuitively pretty clear. Sometimes it is hesitant to recognize that the Hold switch has been turned off, and needs a reboot or other slightly too drastic action to get it to respond.
Jeff