As always, thanks for your thoughts DSatz.
Of course I try to use one of my 24 bit recorders when possible, but my MZ-RH1 is so much easier to use when I need to be inconpicuous that I'm willing to put up with the higher noise floor in those cases (especially since it is rarely audible to me and never is when I'm recording something that is fairly loud). I will give consideration to trying to aim for peaks around -6 or -4 when it looks like the peaks are fairly consistent with minimal surprises and see how that works for me though.