Remember the good old days of minidisc? A nice small unit, just plug in a mic and you can get a good recording (I had/have a single point mic with very low sensitivity, so I always got away without having a battery box).
I am looking for something that essentially replaces this simplicity. I am essentially looking for two things in a modern unit:
1. Plug in power input (with a relatively clean pre-amp stage [The old Sharp MT-15 and Sharp DR-07 were good enough])
2. Line-in that doesn't suck (I will sometimes be passing a signal through the old Edirol UA5 (digimod) and into the line-in).
I have already done a bit of homework, and things are falling into two categories: Smaller, inexpensive and a *possible* compromise in quality. Other category is more expensive, a little bigger, and you know it's going to work well.
Smaller, inexpensive:
Tascam DR-22WL
Tascam DR-05
Tascam DR-2D
Olympus LS-14/LS-12
Bigger, high quality
Sony PCM-M10
Roland R-05
Marantz PMD620 MKii
Thoughts? Pros and cons on these units?