I'm gonna go back to some pre's sound better with certian mic's. Using the mixpre-d is like any other coax output preamp. Now is it better? I think that depends on if you like the sound "better" than the stock R-44. The R-44 is a great all around deck with no serious shortcomings as far as the sound goes. If anything I thought the Edirol(Roalnd now) sound was slightly grainy for lack of a better description. Given a choice I'd probably prefer the A/D unit from Sound Devices. BUt none of that really matters is the preamp is not a good match to the mics. I cannot speak to how the mixpre-d sounds. I've only used the mixpre, mp-2 and usbpre2. And the mp-2(mixpre) is a lot different sounding than the usbpre2.