got an ol' 840gx

[gscontr]

i just got an old roland 840gx recently, and was wondering a few things...is the hiss normal? i am using a mixer (behringer 802a) for the input, and am still playing with the gain etc. but have already given up on the onboard efx on the roland (prefer to use the stuff i have---they sound a little less video game). Running a gr-1 into stereo, also a (gasp) crappy drum machine, also stereo, and seem to have no disk error problems so far. I have seen some mods on the vs planet site that suggest using an addonics cf reader to quiet the recording and increase storage space. Any thoughts on this board about the mod? other than the difficulty of finding an aeiudmd9 drive?