I am soliciting opinions on my next gear purchase. Given this gear, AKG Solid Tube, KM-184, M-Box, into a Power Book G4 with and external firewire harddrive attached, what would be my next best and most logical purchase? I am using this gear to record acoustic guitar, mandolin, fiiddle, bass, banjo and vocal.

Hi all, I'm at the stage where I think upgrading my pres might be a good plan. What I wanna know is are all these high-endpres worth the extra cash over their budget rivals? Is there a real noticable difference between them and the budget stuff?

Let me try again and refrase it...
I think (but I should say I know) that impedance matching could be key in a lot of recording applications.
It affects the way two pieces of gear interact with each other.
What I am interested in is impedance matching within microphone and preamp.

I'm new to this so you have to forgive me and have patience with me.

What's the difference in result of the sound quality of a cheap preamp, a good preamp, and an expensive preamp?

What would you most likely hear in the vocals that point out a cheap preamp and a good preamp?

I am adding some more API modules and I love my Brent Averill Neve 1272. Does anyone own his 312a's? How do they compare to the 512c's?

I was just wondering if anyone has heard of this mic preamp. I called him asking if he had any quad eight mic preamps and he claims that his mic preamp kit is better than the quad eights, neve, telefunken. I was just wondering if anybody has ever heard it. And if they have, is it true, or is that a bogus statement?

Any advice would be much appreciated:

Is there a "significant" difference in sound quality between a bottom of the line mic preamp(ART tube opl-$100) vs. something like a $300-500 range preamp?

Has anyone had any experience with Quad eight mic preamp's? I've heard they are similar to the api sound. also, does anyone know where I can get some around the BC, cananda area? thanks

This topic has been deleted.. From now on any kind of "challenge" like it, "bait" posted to create a flame, will go the same way. I thought it was what it turned out to be when it first came up but I decided to let it run to see where it went. Having seen where it led, it is now where it belongs.. in the trash . . . move on to more constructive endeavors.