Looking to buy Marantz PMD661 or similiar

Hello audio friends!
I am looking for a used or new portable audio recorder with dual XLR inputs w/ phantom power. Before you all tell me to get the Zoom H4, please know I'm looking for something a bit more sturdy with cleaner pre-amps. I have my eyes set on the Marantz PMD661, so if any of you have something similiar or better for around the same price ($550) then shoot me an email!

The recorder should:
-Record @ 24-bit/96khz
-Work 100% (no missing batt. doors or loose connections.)
-have a decent battery life (~3hrs or more)

Thanks for your time.
-Mike

If you are willing to spend a little bit more, you can get some nice mods on an a Fostex or a Marantz. I have the Fostex FR2LE. I just wish it had a longer pre-record buffer (2 secs), but oh well.

http://www.oade.com/digital_recorders/hard_disc_recorders/PMD-660MODS.html

http://www.oade.com/digital_recorders/hard_disc_recorders/FR-2LE_upgrades.html

Thanks Toby, I never thought of buying a modded recorder, I'll check out those links you recommended. Right now I can't afford an awesome sound devices ENG mixer (I've used one before.... such clean sound!) so I'm looking for a recorder with good pre-amps to do some field recordings. If you have any more suggestions I'm all ears. In the meantime, keep on recording!

So looking at those links I think I might want to go with the FR2LE Basic Mod or the PMD660 with the "Ambient" mod, although I'll look into more details later to decide which might be better for me(I'm at work right now...). If you suggest a certain unit, I'm all ears (keeping in mind that for field recordings I'll be plugging a mic straight to the recorder, since I don't have the funds for a mixer at the moment). I'm also curious which mod you have on your FR2LE and whether you have recorded straight to the unit as opposed to running your mic through a mixer (which I assume you do). Thanks so much for your help, I appreciate you taking the time to help me out!

Mike-

You know what, I'm embarrassed to say this, but I forget what mod I have. I actually just wrote to Doug Oade who does the mods to see if he has a record. You need to be careful when selecting them as some mods DECREASE the gain in the electronics (for people who record loud concerts). For guys like us, we want the OPPOSITE. I'm pretty sure the FR2LE Basic is a gain reducing mod.

Just a word about Oade....they are GREAT, trustworthy and communicative. If you want to make the jump into a higher grade rig, I really recommend them.

Great, yeah, I looked over the details again and realized I would want a mod that would increase the gain. Have you ever had problems with recording loud SFX due to your mod? Or do you just countereact loud sfx by using external pads? Thanks so much for investigating what mod you had by actually calling up! I'll probably give them a call to find out what would work best for my application.