| I agree on the Grace... clean and most location sound equipment is generally pretty clean and free of anything resembling "sonic character"... there are a handful of guys using Grace Lunatec V3s for boom operators / and "tape" A-D conversion.
you might even be able to get a used Lunatec V3 for about a grand, but it is definitely not as ubiquitous as the Sound Devices stuff.
on the Nagra note, if you put any of the Nagra machines into "test" mode, they effectively operate as a preamp, so that is a viable option too - but I would not count on Nagras being employed as much as they used to. there are too many other competitors that people have jumped ship to for one reason or another. |