Essentially, yes, that is the question. Being primarily a Nak 700's guy, I normally have no use for a pre-amp or phantom power, and under normal circumstances, I wouldn't use my 744T with my stealth rig that requires one. I have a recently acquired an SD 302 which is on it's way to me now, and I will be using it with other mics that require phantom power and a pre. Although I can use the 744T with them without the use of a pre, I need one when running 4 mics. Also, last weekend, I ran the mics (mic in) in a very close proximity ("stage lip") to the amps and drums, and had to set the input levels so low that it made me question if there's a better way. When running into the line in inputs, I can only set the level internally on the 744T, which gives very little flexibility... So, are you saying I should set the internal level (or is it actually a limiter?) to 0? The "low" setting you are referring to, is that a low cut? I wouldn't want to add a low cut to the mics (although a -10db to -15db attenuation might be nice). Also, do you know what the advantage is to having a gain and a fader on the 302? Am I able to attenuate, while also having full range over the input?