A lot of great things about the Sony decks:
- excellent , low noise preamps
- long battery life, including the ability to go into very low use "standby" mode,
- excellent user interface/controls.
The new deck adds SNR that is as good as, or better than many USB interfaces.
These are most useful if you want to do field recording, play back and/or edit on the deck. All you need is a set of (Sony) 7506 phones.
For live recording, there are lots of options, but nothing beats a great all-in-one deck when you need it.
Richard