Let's talk Preamps..

Let there be no doubt that with the mic pre you pay for sound quality. That is what the whole game is about! But the preamp alone is not wholly responsible for quality, it is just one component. Your a\d converters, the cleanliness of your signal paths, the acoustic properties of your recording room, your choice of microphone and choice of monitors (so you can hear the fine differences) are all critical to quality. Those who want "the best" sound quality might spend $4,000 on preamps, $3500 on converters, $1500 on an audio interface and $5,000 on mics and $3,000 on room treatment. That's $17,000 just to get into the pro ballpark, still far from "the best", and we haven't included the cost of monitors, DAW, software or cables. So my first bit of advice is to scale your choices to your overall budget. In other words...

Face reality. If you are just starting out and have a $1000 budget for everything, you should use the preamps on your mixer or audio interface and choose your mic carefully. Do you have to then settle for crappy sound? No! Let's consider technique. You can get surprising results out of mediocre preamps and typical consumer soundcards by meticulously setting the gain or trim level till its perfect, keeping a clean signal path, training your vocalist to use good microphone techniques and doing what you can to reduce your room reflections. A poorly set level on a great preamp recorded in a nasty reflective room will not sound good. If you want to sound like a pro, work like a pro, and then, after much deliberation, saving money, weighing options, get your preamp. Don't scrimp. Remember I told you several pages back I'll tell you where you can compromise and where you can't? The preamp is a piece of gear where you should not compromise. Get one you are convinced will give you better sound quality.

-Tweak