Ok, a preamp is not something everyone needs. It's used to interface an analogue instrument (e.g. my guitar/bass, or microphone) with a digitial audio workstation (DAW) such as my Macbook Pro.

I've been doing some songwriting/recording with my macbook and needed a pre-amp, so I picked up the M-Audio Mobile Pre USB .

Price: About $150 in-store and I've seen them for about $130 online.

Performance: Very good

Feature Overview: There's 4 inputs (2 channels), 2 SLR's, 2 1/4 inch, Phantom power /w on/off switch, USB connection, bus powered. Compatible with Windows/MacOS with driver discs and some freeware in the box.

Review: My earliest concern with the M-Audio Mobile Pre USB was latency. There's nothing worse than the recording lagging from a slow connection. USB is slower than FireWire, so I was definitely worried that I'd plug in my guitar and be lagging. That was NOT the case.

I did notice a little latency of I had too much stuff running on the mac, but that's a function of my being stupid. When I closed the open apps, the latency problem's gone. (Do I really need Firefox open while I record? No, I don't.)

The first thing I noticed (b/c I didn't read the instructions) is "damn, there's no power supply...". Well, that's b/c this unit is USB bus powered. There's no need to plug in an external power supply. (Sweet!)

Other cool features include phantom power (which allows you to use conderser mics and other mics that require phontom power)

back view: The M-Audio Mobile Pre has inputs on the front and back, phantom power,  headphone outs, left/right 1/4 inch outs, and a stero mic in. 

All this is fine, but how does it sound?

I've found that the guitar I record through the mobile pre comes out clean, crisp and true to the tone of the insturment. (I'm using a Les Paul, so it's a rich, warm guitar.)

If course, there are no built-in effects, so all effects processing is done on the DAW (computer). In my case, I'm using Apple's iLife '09 (GarageBand '09) and it works great. I get a rich clean sound and can simulate any distorion I want. 

I've also used this preamp to record vocals with a decent condenser mic (Marshall MXL 990) and get an excellent signal with little background hiss or inteference. 

It's clean, quiet and does the job.

Summary:

If you're recording /w GarageBand (or Logic Express) and want an easy, portable input to pull in analog audio, the M-Audio Mobile Pre will do the job and do it well.

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