Thanks - yeah, I've read that article and it was very informative! I think I understand what BW IS now, I just need to figure out how to rein it in for my particular circumstances... As I say, it's not across-the-board BW'ing, just the occasional blip. Annoying rather than completely ruining a tape. But it's bugging me since some samples I wanted to use on my website have just a flicker or it here and there and thus I'm not sure that I CAN use them (yeah, I know - most civilians probably wouln'dt even notice - but *I* know it's there!)
Why don't you just run line in? It seems a bit crazy to put the mics through an attenuator, and then into the boostbox.
But for really trouble free operation, I would almost suggest using minidisc, line input. There is quite a lot of headroom on the mic input (low sens), and if you need to turn the input down below, say 15/30, then you know that you can plug into line input and max the gain out. It is all analog controlled and the sound is pretty good. I use all kinds of mics, + 3 wire battery box into MD, either mic or line in.
Oh yeah, I found (at least some of the) himd have the ak5356 chipset. This is a credible low-voltage pre+ adc, and probably better than the one found in NJB3 and iRiver. Of course an external pre/ADC is going to sound best, but I think MD is hard to beat for a low profile rig. That, or an Edirol R01/R09.
Richard