"Makes me wonder if i can get away with running mic in now?"
Why would you wan't to do that? I've always read & been told that you need to run line-in and run the 20 db ATT setting in order to get the most out of the m1's A/D converter. I'm able to run my m1 dial at 8, and sometimes 10 using this method with my rig. If I ran the same rig via mic-in, I may be able to get rid of my transformers and run the dial at a lower setting, but the A/D converter is supposedly much better in the m1 if you can run the dial wide open (i.e. 10).