hey erik et al-thanks for offering to help with this. i put a small example file on my site at http://bhobrainey.net/1015.WAV for anyone who feels like looking at it.
i'm suspicious, as well, that there is actually a new wav 24bit format. couldn't find anything on it. i asked marantz for specs. they're currently silent on the matter.
-bh http://bhobrainey.net