John,

The Lunatec is an awesome pre. Even if you ignore the fact that you have converters in the box! The pre alone is worth the money. That being said, the converters are on par with the preamps! This is a wonderful box - especially for recording symphonic material. (Which, if I recall correctly, you do a good deal of that, right?)

Grace (their parent company, and a company whose mic pres my company uses exclusively for orchestral work) will tell you that it is 95% of the performance of the 201/801 pres - you can believe it.

The likely comparison that will be drawn will be to the Apogee box with similar features. The Lunatec blows the apogee out of the water on all accounts! Though, I believe it's a bit pricier.

Just my thoughts,
J... :D

Jeremy,
Thanks yet again for your advice. What made me interested in the Grace was the fact that it can be used as a stand-alone pre, unlike the Apogee, that only has digital outs (apart from the headphone socket). So apart from everything you mentioned, I won't have to junk it when I steal those Prism converters :lol:

Thanks again!
John