Topic: recording sounds from North Africa with JB3

[nicksowers]

How is SP's battery module + gain-selectable pre-amp?  For $169 can I do any better than that?

I find it humorous that I started out saying my budget was $250 for the whole rig, and now I'm putting out $250 just for basic mics, power, and pre-amp.  What kind of demented hobby is this anyway?

[Scuba Jeremy]

I don't think the preamp will be necissary. The gain from my MD deck Line In was more than enough to make solid recordings. I think the preamp would just add more noise.

[nicksowers]

But what about recording soft sounds?  Let's say I want to pick up the sound of feet shuffling on a street around the corner.  Is it really going to suffice, even with high sensitivity (-35db) mics and battery mod, to go straight into line-in?  Please advise  

What I've read so far on NJB3Tapers Yahoo group leads me to believe I need a pre-amp.  But if they're wrong, let me know, as this would obviously save me much needed cash.  Cash I would maybe put towards CMC-4 omni's, which seem to be popular.

My newbie rig is going to look like: SP-BMC-12>SP-PREAMP>JB3 for a grand total of $480, shipped.  

p.s. Is it a significant difference (to the aspiring audiophile) in signal noise ratio b/t 60db and 65db or 67db?  Worth spending $40 more to get BMC-6's w/clips? Worth spending $80 more to get CMC-4's w/clips?  Are these questions impossible to answer?