I got the mixing board for £80. You can indeed get cheap pre amps, but according to all sources, there is a noticable difference between a cheapo pre amp and a non cheapo. The pre amps that I was thinking of getting were made by companies like midiman and if you check out the prices you'll find that they're more or less the same price as my Beringer mixer was.

Anyway, who cares? I really just started this topic off to register an opinion about how I feel I've been misled by mass hype into buying something that I really didn't need- an expensive pro audio sound card.

I'm gonna let this topic die off now, as I don't really have much more to offer, (except maybe a few wranglings about the price of pre amps, which doesn't really interest me right now).

I've said my main point that I wanted to get across, and I'm quite happy for this thread to die out and reside in the archives for a while.

If people wanna take on board what I've said before buying an expensive sound card, then great. If not, then who caresss? - not me.

Thanks for the contributions!