On Wed, May 28, 2008 at 01:11:05PM +0200, schoappied wrote: If all you want is 2 in and out with mic pres, I would say that is a fair way to go. If you buy this mixer, you may find yourself wanting a slightly better on though. If you use the mixer strictly for mic pre-amps, then it is fine. If you are willing to consider Behringer brand (some people hate them), you could get a bit more mixer for a bit less money from that web wite with the XENYX 802. The Soundcraft Classic 4 also looks better, and that is a great brand. I haven't used either of these specific mixers though. Personally, I have an 10 channel Yamaha unit, which is about $20 more than the Mackie you mention, but I believe that mine has been discontinued. I would have gone for the Behringer, but I put off buying anything until I needed it the next day and the Yamaha was what I could find locally. However, looked that the same web site, I see that ART TUBE MPs (http://www.thomann.de/nl/art_tube_mp.htm) are 39 eur each. These are dedicated tube pre-amps, and you can hook them up directly to a 2496, and they will probably sound a good bit better than the Mackie does. I've used Mackies with their VLZ preamps, and I am not particularly impressed by them. I haven't tried the ARTs yet, but no one seems to dislike them, and they are very cheap. I probably will buy a pair sometime this year.