First of all, you are going to be blown away by how much better your recordings are than the ones through the little Aiwa mic.
If the concert is amplified then you can skip the preamp and same some $$. Instead, get a battery module from Church Audio or Sound Professionals--a gizmo that takes a 9V battery and sends enough power to the mics so that you can record through Line-in. $40-$60.
The preamp is more powerful and more flexible, for nature recording, unamplified voices and music, etc. But if you're only taping shows, even folk music with a microphone onstage, it's not necessary. You can get one later when the budget improves if you want.
In situations where you would need a preamp, the PCM-M10 recorder already has a (smaller, lower-quality, but still very nice) preamp built in at the Mic-in jack; in fact, a Mic-In jack means there is a preamp on the way to the recording. I would expect Tascam's preamps to be good enough as well. In the old Minidisc days, that preamp would overload for anything loud or bass-heavy.
There's no preamp at the Line-in jack, which is why you'd run the preamp or battery box through that jack instead.
I agree with the consensus here about the CA-14--I prefer the omnis. But they are twice the price of the BMC-2 and much larger, a thumb-tip compared to a pencil eraser. If you are planning to be stealthy the BMC-2 are stealthier. For amplified concerts, you want to get the Low Sensitivity version.
Another thing to consider is turnaround time. Church Audio is a one-man show, and he can take weeks to get around to building your mics, with the added delay of shipping from Canada. So if you are going to go the Church Audio route, your May concert isn't that far away. And as noted above, look in the Yard Sale here first.
Topic: Veteran Taper/New Equipment (Read 3989 times)