Ok. I've been taping for over 10 years, and have never purchased a pre-amp. I never seemed to need one with what I was running, and I was way too busy enjoying the shows (and the tapes always sounded great) to learn everything I needed to learn. When my taper friends were all talking about Sonosax and a/d converters I was just... well, paying attention to other things.
In any event, I recently purchased a JB3 since my trusty D-7 was injured in a moving accident, and the D10 is too big to stealth with. Little did I realize that I would wind up with almost no levels! A problem I never had with any type of DAT, no matter what type of mic I was running.
My current mics are as follows: AKG-391 with active cables. I have no idea what the model # etc of the phantom power supplies are -- they were also made by AKG, each one takes a 9v and has a belt clip and takes 1 XLR in and 1 XLR out.
I haven't tried to use the AKGs with the JB3 yet. I've been using a Sony ECM-719 stereo mic powered by a tiny battery (looks like a hearing aid battery) and I also have a Sony ECM 909 powered by a single AA battery, both of which I use for stealth shows. I don't have the money to buy new mics right now (though I am jealous of all these tiny stealth mics with great sound - wow!) so I'm looking to get a reasonably priced pre-amp that I can use with the Sony mics particularly. It's not always feasible to bring a hat I can use the AKGs in to a show -- for example I planning on taping the opera tomorrow night and a baseball cap or Kangol just... would be suspicious. The Sony mics both have a single 1/8" stereo line-out.
I've been reading the posts in this forum, but frankly a lot of it is just beyond my understanding at this point. It's a little embarassing to have been taping for as long as I have, and to have taped literally hundreds of shows, including a large # and variety of excellent stealth recording, and to have no idea how a pre-amp works or if I need one or how an a/d converter works or why I need one.
I'd love to get whatever advice you can offer.
Thanks.
Beth