If all you're doing is SFX collection, it looks like a neat unit.
No way of telling what the pre-a/d onboard sounds like, and from the specs given it looks like it will do up to 96/24 from an outboard pre-a/d. The s/n, thd & response specs look OK, and it will do 48V Phantom on it's mic inputs.
It'll do 289 minutes @ 48/24 and 144 minutes @ 96/24 on a 5GB PCMCIA drive. Wonder why they didn't put an onboard drive 20 gig'r in the thing? 2 Hours/24 Minutes on a 5GB Drive? You'd have to carry about 4 drives ($1000 or more) for a festival.
B&H has these listed for $1,299 - certainly not as cheep as a JB3. 5GB drives are in the $250-300 range - don't really see anyone making larger drives and CF memory seems the direction most storage is going (versus designing and building PCMCIA hi-capacity drives). The power supply is not currently in stock, and someone on another thread commented that they tried RatShack adapters and couldn't get one to fit.
If they made one of these with a 20 or 40 (or <gasp> 60/80) gig internal drive or option, it would definately be something I'd consider for concert recording. 5GB Toshiba's seem to be the largest PCMCIA drives out there. Hitachi/IBM Travelstars have 20/40GB drives in the 1.8" form factor, but I don't see them in a PCMCIA mount. (I smell another DIY Taper Project brewing)
It's a little large for stealthing (9.4X8.27X3.9"). I'd also be interested in seeing whether this "standard BWF (Broadcast Wave File)" format is something that's going to be compatible with standard tools, like soundforge, cooledit and wavelab.
Without having laid hands on this, I'd say it looks like a cool toy. If I wasn't saving my pennies for the new Canon 1D MarkII camera that's coming out in a week or 2, I might even lust after one of these (ok, I'm kinda drooling to play with one. If the pre-a/d was (is) any good sounding, I'd even consider dumping the V3 and picking up one of these up, even though spec-wise - the V3 has 7-10 more dB of dynamic range.
Only thing that would hold me back, would be the lack of available storage devices. With an internal 20/40/60GB hard disk, this would "almost" be a no brainer, and surely compete well with the other hard disk recorders that are coming to market now. Fostex discusses thier movement into non-linear technology (hard disc recorders) as one of thier reasons for dropping thier DAT deck. Maybe we'll see a similar unit soon from them, with a hard disc. I know Marantz is supposedly coming out with one also.
The more I look at the specs, the more I drool...
Rick