On a whim today before starting my daily (or nightly) session at my studio I grabbed a M-Audio DMP3. I'd used one before briefly, but I was pretty new to it still. Only $159 now. Anyway, I tried it on two clients' sessions today and it's a sweet little pre. Very clean and quiet. Sounds pretty darn natural. My first client was a very quiet, breathy vocalist doing a vocal recording for an upcoming release on a well known religious music label that I was, thanks to circumstance, able to record for her at my "project studio". She was extremely quiet, thankfully so was the preamp  , and it matched up well with her voice using a my favorite tube mic. Very natural sound. Let me also say though, that all my other preamps are in the colored category since I usually do rock music.
Next was my typical rock session and it worked well for some odd male vocals and sound effects (you'd have to hear these vocal to understand odd  ) and the pre served admirably.
The preamp fit in well with my other much more expensive preamps (sorry, I don't have any Mackies to compare agianst  ) and definitely seemed up to about any task.
Bottom line: talk about a "bang for the buck" preamp. Oh wait, make that DUAL PREAMP! 
Just thought I'd share my experience today.
Matt
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No matter how good something is, there will always be someone blasting away on a forum somewhere about how much they hate it.
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