Thanks for the quick replies, I was starting to get a bit worried as I have spent nearly £400.00 in the last 2 weeks on this stuff and I think my wife would kill me if I spent anymore.
As far as upgrading goes, I have seen some posts about pre-amps. If I bought a pre-amp do I use it instead of the battery box or as well as the battery box.
I will mostly be recording loud rock concerts, if I started using a pre-amp would I notice much of an improvement in the sound quality of the final recording?
my very first rig was AT831b > AT8351 battbox > Hosa xformer > D100. it sounded ok/pretty good. to my surprise, i made some pretty good tapes for a newbie, but i noticed that the sound was a bit thin.
then i upgraded the AT831b > AT853a. sounded better in the lower end, but noticed that it lacked the fullness in the sound.
then i added an outboard preamp (MV-100) and phantom power. it made a very large difference in the sound of my recordings. really full, increased dynamics and great clarity.
in my experience, i would highly recommend an outboard pre.
marc