Another 877 user!! I really thought I was the only one!! and i just made the switch to dat ( notice I didn't say upgrade) But really the main difference I have noticed is a greater dynamic range- and it is subtle. Now I got the Panasonic sv255 Dat, an older model yes, but a damn solid dat recorder. I love that it has xlr in's- backlight display, yet the led's on the 877 are allright, and most importantly a digi out. That is the holy grail in the MD world. Except the hhb md there is no digi out on any portable model- which makes you a social outcast in the TS due to the inability to offer true patches. But man the 877 is one damn fine recorder- I have the deneke ad20- so i record digi in, at 20-bit, 44.1- which is comparable to 16bit, 48k- trade off's yes- but sound quality is the final characteristic in which to judge. and the sound quality between the 877 abd the sv255 is almost null- especially when the venue calls for some aphex aural excitment. But the ability to record full potential at 2-3 hours beats the 877's mdlp anyday. The xlr in ( obviously not available on a d7,8 m100 or its ilk) the baklight, and the extenden recording ability make dat a better choice for in the field, yet when I go stealth, the 877 is the only choice, due to battery effeciency, small size and exceptional sound quality. And really md's are so much less of a hassel than dat's, in terms of media, no mis-loads, no tensioning, no rewinding/fastforwarding. Anyways I guess I was just excited to see another 877 user out there.