[jrichview]

I paid around $900 for the 003 Rack+ (new) which came with PT8. It gave my band the capability to record 8 mics at once. Prior to that we had a limit of 4. And realistically we could swing 12 at once now as another guy has an 002 control board.

Are the preamps pro studio quality? No. Are we using pro studio quality mics? No. But our results are pretty good for what we've invested.

I'll probably replace the Rack+ at some point and I've already begun shopping because it sucks that the line inputs still go through the built-in preamps. That sort of prevents me from running one high quality pre-amp for vocals, though if I found one that had digital S/PDIF output I'm sure I could still swing it. But I can also achieve that via my friend's 002 if necessary.

If there was some convincing evidence as to what advantage I'd gain from replacing it sooner, I would. But thus far I haven't seen it. I'd rather spend my time becoming better at sound engineering in Pro Tools than shopping.