Okay...so I pulled the trigger today and purchased the deck from B&H. i wil be getting it in about a week and have a show to tape right after I receive it.
A fine choice. You'll love it, I'm sure!
I presume there is a seamless split @ 2GB...correct?
I haven't had a chance to really put it through its paces to answer all your other questions but I can definitely say that like its PCM-D50 sibling, the 2GB file splits are indeed seamless. You'll have no problem there.
I've had it for about 1.5 months and popped its cherry in the live recording scene on the second week with my (also virgin) Core Sound cardioids - battery box fed to line in. The performance of it was good in terms of quality though I may consider designing an external preamp for future recordings given the low level I got out of it - peaks at -24dB at the level setting of 8 which I thought was going to be enough compared to my usual setting of 7 on my PCM-D50 (for -12dB peaks) with the Core Sound binaurals and the same battery box.
I haven't decided yet as I don't like the idea of having to pocket another thing too when out and about.
I'm going to another metal concert tomorrow night and will probably end up turning the recording level all the way to 10 this time to see how much more gain (and noise) I'll get from doing that. Hopefully this time, I'll be able to look at the unit and see if it will tickle the -12dB LEDs as per all my other recordings.