I was in the market for a handheld digital recorder and was having a lot of trouble trying to find any that explicitly stated that they could handle a VERY loud band

And I really shouldn’t have to rig up some kind of sloppy band-aid to fix this issue

Really heavy/loud bands, etc in a small room (~100 person) room.

This feature also comes in handy when recording the school band, even though I'm holding the unit for this (in the second or third row of seats)... if the band is louder than expected, without dual level I would have to lower the input level during the performance and hope that it wouldn't be noticeable in the recording

Also use it for band practice, which is handy for writing.

Not quite as useful for recording a full band with drums in a rehearsal studio

The built-in cardioid mics (X-Y or A-B) offer amazing quality for a hand-held device, all that plus XLR/Line inputs for channels 3-4 and a host of programming options, easy transfer of files via SD card

I use the recorder to record with the internal mics as well as to connect to other XLR microphones.

Works exactly as I expected it to.

Works great for field recording as well as for recording the sermons I preach for uploading online