best advice I can give, dont listen to anyone except yourself. I run a MP2 who alot of folks dont like, yet I cant begin to count the number of comments I get from other tapers that say, "you know, I really love your tape of <insert band name here>, and while I dont like the MP2, this sounds great." This leads me to believe alot of the abuse that people put toward the MP2s are from them (1) hearing crap tapes with that in the lineage...of course the crap tape could have been caused from other things, (2) it is popular to bash the MP2, and (3) the pre just may not sound good with the mics, but that is up to you to decide...dont trust anyone elses word on how it sounds, you can get knee deep in expenses in this hobby if you do