FWIW, I just taped my first show last weekend (Bomb Squad) using my new warm-mod UA-5, and I must say (IMHO) it came out way better than I ever expected. I'm shocked at how well this pre/AD works. I too was concerned about metering, so I took advice from a Craig T post I read (and I know others have said the same thing), and it worked just great. This was his advice:
"all I do is increase the gain in one channel unil the LED lights up, back off a bit until it stops and repeat for the other channel. If it gets louder and the LED comes on again for more than a brief flicker, I back both channels down equally. Seemed to work fine the few times I ran the ua5>PDA (poor meters like the JB3)."
I know the JB3 meters are crappy, but this approach made it easy. Levels on the JB3 were peaking about where they should have been. I actually could have gone a little higher, i.e. my LED wasn't blinking at *all* and my levels came out a tad low, but it still sounds sweet. I've since read from others that an occasional "wink" from the LED is not a bad thing, which I will try next time.
peace,
Keith