Personally, I think the document is more important than the format. I respect the idea of setting standards in hopes of maintaining a certain level of quality, but I don't think banning a certain master format will help. An MD atrac recording with properly set recording levels and a good mic will sound better than a DAT with automatic recording levels and crappy mic.
It would be cool if someone with a wav recorder and an newer MD Atrac recorder (type-r and hi-sp) would record the same show line-in using manual recording levels and the same mics/position. I think the results would sound much closer in terms of quality than the samples Five posted. Here is a sample of an MD recording I made last year(atrac-r/Sony MZ-S1 manual recording levles).
http://www.unbase.com/n/0353141192
To my ears it sounds as good as any recording that ever came from my WM-D3.
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