Thanks for the tips on the Fostex. To be honest when I was monitoring my recording live it sounded great. I didn't notice any noise until I got back home and loaded the audio onto my PC. One commenter on my blog tells me that he has similar results with dynamic microphones but that it sounds great with a condenser. It's probably my own fault for not taking another mic with me, but I wanted to test each recorder I found using the same equipment so I grabbed my trusty RE50.
As for the MT II, the guy I spoke with said they had brought a working model, but something had happened to it. I don't know if it was misplaced or broken. But considering the show had just started a few hours ago by the time I found the booth, that wasn't encouraging.
Still, it looks like a step up, and if they can get the price down, it might be a good compact recorder for some folks. It doesn't seem to pack all the features of a Zoom H2/H4 or Edirol R-09, but it's got quarter inch inputs, a tiny size, and feels pretty sturdy for a plastic device.