Well, I took a ton of pics of my VMS02IB and listed it for sale. Then realized what an idiot I was and now I'm keeping it lol. It really does sound great with the Schoeps! I mean they were made for each other after all! It has a really fast and clean and detailed sound, but with great low-end, and has really low-noise preamps! There's no way that I could sell it! I just found other ways to afford the new MixPre6 I'm ordering soon
Like Dactylus said, I'm a preamp guy too, but now I'm down to just my VMS02IB. One of these days I'll grab a PSP-2 to join my 02IB
That said, most all-in-one decks have adequate preamps, especially these days, to get the job done! But there's just something about a dedicated preamp that makes you feel like you're getting a better end result, and you can change the flavor of the mics by changing preamps! But depending on the mics and the preamps and decks etc, running different preamps & recorders produces negligible results that some can barely hear, like Marc said above!
Luckily for us external preamp guys, the prices keep coming down and down, for the most part anyway
Anyone have a PSP-2 they want to let go? LOL