go over to the tapers forum hosted by oade audio, and read some of the
posts about the different units you are looking at - those guys have
used everything. in that price range, doug oade offers a few
different midifications for the UA-5 that people really like a lot.
he has a "warm" mod that would be great for your rode mic. he also
has a "presence" mod for those who are looking for a more detailed
sound. he also offers a "digi" mod that allows the UA5 to work as a
stand-alone box with SPDIF outs to other types of digital recording
systems.