personaly, i think he should dump the whole package and start fresh.
Or maybe he should just find some friends who don't laugh at him.
You said that the rig makes nice pulls, he likes the mics, they're the cats ass *, and he doesn't want to spend much money. Other than the inconvenience of running long mics and the apparent ridicule it's generating, is there something that
he doesnt' like about the rig?
It would really be a shame to sell his classic Neumanns and the rest of the rig only to start using something more common that he might end up not liking all that much. Sure, adding an SBM-1 or AD20 will be an improvement over the D8 A>D, and cleaning up any noisy or faulty cabling makes good sense, but I'm not sure who thinks this 'upgrade' is needed.
- Jason
* "What was, was, and what is, is is, and this what is, is what's happening right now." Paul Sr.