Ran mine last night 24/96, p48 off, xlr in coming out of a V2. First of all, love the layout and size over my 661. My only qualm with the design is that its easy to bump the level adjustment wheel. Of course, if i pay attention it wont matter, but after a bottle of wine last night.....you get the picture.
I got about 2 hours with the internal battery. Did not bring AAs. There was one bare left, so probably another 30next minutes. I had the back light set on 30 seconds, and did a bit of adjustment. So you can probably get some more time of you lower the timer. I was hoping for a longer battery life ......however, its a great little recorder.
As far as noise coming from the machine....since i had p48 off there was none. Quiet as could be...