O.K. I'll throw my hat into the ring too!
Here are the following mic pre's I own so far discussed with my comments
in parenthesis;
1) Behringer 602 A mixer (thin sounding pre section-lo fat version of Mackie)
2) Joe Meek VCQ6 channel strip (sells for more than $200 budget set here)
3) Joe Meek VC3Q (little brother to above, pretty transparent mic pre section,
useful optical compressor, nice EQ section-much better than your mixer!)
In addition to the above also own/have owned;
1) Aphex 107 dual mic pre (discontinued model)-still own
2)
Bellari MP105 (someone nicknamed it "Hum Injector"!-gave it away to friend)
In the $200 and under class IMO the Joe Meek is the best OVERALL value as the
quality of your compression/EQ is also important, not just the mic pre.
Otherwise based on end user/reviewer comments the DMP3 would win out.
Coincidently, before reading this thread, I was experimenting with my newly
acquired
Oktava MK-012 cardiod microphone with the VC3Q and it sounded fine.
Chris
P.S. WATYF, my mint condition VC3Q is probably destined for ebay within two
weeks as I already have the big brother version VC6Q.
As a courtesy, if you have a level of interest, I'll post the price/shipping terms
in the FOR SALE section of this BBS, and give you first "dibs" on it for a period
of time, before allowing other members the opportunity of purchasing it.