On Thu, 21 Sep 2006 00:37:35 -0700 Florin Andrei <florin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: Well I'd go against most of the advice on here for one simple reason. Noise pickup. The ideal situation is to have a mic with built in pre-amp, otherwise have one as close to the mic as is physically possible. The stronger the signal going to the card, and the the higher the signal level required by that card the better. Balanced would be best of course but is outside the price range of lots of people. -- Will J G