running the oktavas myself through a usbpre, i think you should go with the presence mod, i think it would really brighten up these mics. by nature they have a pretty warm sound...at least through my pre they do. i have tapes of oktavas through the usbpre (sound devices pre-amp, similar to mp2) and some through a denecke ad-20, and i can get some through a v3 if you wanna hear comparisons. i may put these together anyways just for reference. i'm a big fan of the oktavas, for the money they can't be beat.