Hey, I've been lurking around here for a little bit now and have a question for the general recording public.

How do you guys feel about the PreSonus XMAX preamps? Where do they fall in the grand scheme of mic preamps?

I've got a Firepod and for the price, I think it's a killer unit. But I don't know that much about it except for what my recordings sound like. So far they always end up a little on the 'cheap' side of things (smeared high-end , too fat a sound in the low end and not enough clarity and distance between instruments) and I'm not sure if that's due to mics (some cheap borrowed drum mics, a 57, 58 and Oktava Mk-319 at the moment), the preamps, converters, plugins I'm using or just my inexperience.

Right now on my recording to-buy list is mics, mainly for drums (overheads, toms and a kick mic) and I'll be sending my 319 to OktavaMod. I'm not sure if I should look into preamps as well. I want to start out with very flat, transparent sounding preamps with low noise. Then move on to 'coloring' preamps later. I'm recording typical rock and pop music (drums, bass, guitars, vocals).