Hi-

So people have convinced me now, and I verified with my own ears, that
the ART Tube MP3 is a piece of junk. My vocals sounded much better with
my OM-5 going into the preamps of my Delta 1010LT card.

But if I decide to get a condenser microphone, I'm either going to need
a phantom power supply, or I'd need a preamp that has one. I've read
that the preamps in the Delta 1010LT are "adequate" at best, but
obviously that's someone's opinion, and I don't have the experience or
knowledge to make the judgment.

I don't want to get into a pattern of dumping money into gear without
knowing that it's worth it, because I imagine that could be a
never-ending cycle (went through that many years ago with guitar gear).

So... the question:

Does anyone *know* that the DMP3 would be a significant upgrade over
built-in preamps in the Delta 1010LT?

Someone posted in another thread that they thought the Behringer UB802
would be a better choice than the M-Audio, but I am inclined *not* to go
in that direction for two reasons: 1) I don't want an external mixer -
I would like specifically to do all my mixing digitally for the sake of
repeatability and compactness. Therefore that piece of gear would be a)
paying for things I don't want, and b) taking up space on my desktop.
2) I've heard enough flaming of Behringer gear that I'm hesitant to go
down that road.

Thanks for responding to my newbie questions.