Hi, i'd like to thank you all for the valuable information. It's a difficult choice.... the harddisk players don't seem to provide the quality and flexibility i'd like to have. Really interesting is the Compact-Flash solution pointed to by Frank Barknecht, but it's already a bit too expensive. Today i had a look at the new generation of Hi-MD-Recorders (Sony), which seem quite ok... they are really compact and 100 minutes of PCM recording time is enough for me. They have USB-IO and optical in, plugin-power for electret micros, acceptable level meters, the usual editing capabilities and the possibility of using normal batteries. Maybe i'm also biased by the fact that i have been using my good ole MD-Walkman for nearly ten years now, without any problems, also withstanding some hard crashes. At the moment, it's sure difficult to get the Hi-MD media at most places of the world, though.
best greetings, Thomas