mike you are confusing yourself.

"I would like to record some live flute and piano music. Some of the
flute music is solo and some is accompanied by the piano. I am looking
for a portable recorder rather than a computer laptop solution due to
cost issues and some portability issues.

I have considered purchasing one of the new Hi-MD minidisc recorders,
I read a research paper [1] about the "warmth" of analogue recordings.

Eventually (within a year), I would later digitize the analogue
recording into my computer desktop station which is at another
location. "




why not just record the audio in the right format for all your future
projects and avoid the transferring from different formats, analogue
md dat 48.........., there is a lot of extra **** to do then
transferring.

have you done any further research including some aural investigation
into this.

"so I am looking for a solution that can withstand some editing
adjustments and resampling. (i.e. for NTSC video applications I will
have to lengthen the entire sound track length 0.1%). Therefore if a
digital recording solution is used it will have to be the highest
possible sampling rate"

go 96 / 24 digital,

flute and piano will sound best with quality recording gear and
practiced technique.
you could start with stereo IO as it seems you have some budget.

Dale