drstawl
Banned
Before I drop $200 and get sucked into a spinning vortex of additional expenditure to make the first $200 worthwhile......
OK, here's my fork in the road. I've been using an AKG D-770 mic on my acoustic guitar plugged into a Portastudio as pre-amp and then into a PC. Since the inputs on the Portastudio and the inputs on my soundcard are both consumer level unbalanced 1/4" jacks, does it make any sense to upgrade the mic to say an AKG C3000 (Guitar Satan's been working me: $199...) which would require a source of phantom power which I don't presently own, without also upgrading the sound card input to a +4dB balanced XLR and/or pre-amp output to a +4dB balanced XLR? How much of the improvement will be lost due to the restricted quality in the rest of the chain? Breaking it down by equipment choices & my ballpark estimates, based on the come-on I got from GS:
AKG C3000, Phantom Power/D.I. box $250
AKG C3000, Mic Pre-amp w/ phantom power $380
AKG C3000, Mic Pre-amp w/ phantom power, bal ins on soundcard $1180
Feel free to add other combos I've neglected to mention.
OK, here's my fork in the road. I've been using an AKG D-770 mic on my acoustic guitar plugged into a Portastudio as pre-amp and then into a PC. Since the inputs on the Portastudio and the inputs on my soundcard are both consumer level unbalanced 1/4" jacks, does it make any sense to upgrade the mic to say an AKG C3000 (Guitar Satan's been working me: $199...) which would require a source of phantom power which I don't presently own, without also upgrading the sound card input to a +4dB balanced XLR and/or pre-amp output to a +4dB balanced XLR? How much of the improvement will be lost due to the restricted quality in the rest of the chain? Breaking it down by equipment choices & my ballpark estimates, based on the come-on I got from GS:
AKG C3000, Phantom Power/D.I. box $250
AKG C3000, Mic Pre-amp w/ phantom power $380
AKG C3000, Mic Pre-amp w/ phantom power, bal ins on soundcard $1180
Feel free to add other combos I've neglected to mention.