well, I spoke to a guy from their tech support...
the good news:
it seems like this would be a great DAT replacement. He told me that, while it cannot do 24/96, it does not have a file size limit, it does not resample the S/PDIF input, the internal battery should last 5 to 6 hours for recording. all of this seems promising.
the bad news:
the guy I spoke with didn't seem to be the smartest person in the world (in fact, he didn't sound too bright at all). Each question I asked him, he didn't know the answer right away. He put me on hold to look it up, but he did get back to me within 30 seconds to a minute after puting me on hold.
so the question is, is everything they told me the truth. there's some testing to be done. several major retail stores carry this, so I'm sure I'll be able to find one locally (in Boston). I'm planning to go pick one up in the next few days, and begin testing it. This will also give me time to solder an S/PDIF cable with a right-angle RCA to come out of the V3, and an 1/8th inch mini plug on the other. I'll be running my D8 out of the V3's AES, to have a basis for comparison.
I'll be sure to post here with any more good (or bad) news.
and if anyone else wants to start testing this device, feel free