Strip Preamp with Mbox problem

[oettinger1919]

I just bought a Presonus studio channel preamp. It is tube driven and has comp and eq adjustments. I was told that I could run it straight through the mbox without problems.

SO i have tried a few vocal takes with the thing using the eq and comp and also without the comp and I am running into distortion problems. I record at a good level without any clipping and yet the final recording comes through sounding like it is clipped. scratchy/static sounds I am using the phantom power from the preamp since it is a condenser mic and I found that turing up the gain on the mbox makes it much worse. Any Ideas???

[Craig F]

you need to go into the Line Input (1/4") not the Mic Input (XLR)

[oettinger1919]

Im not using a line input it is a condenser mic.

XLR Is a balanced input anyways right?

[musicalavtech]

A preamp usually puts out a line level signal that needs to be routed to the mbox line input as Craig F replied. Regardless of what mic is plugged in.

Except for certain digital inputs, XLR is a balanced input.

[Craig F]

sorry I stopped short

Line input of the mBox which is the 1/4", the XLR on the mBox is mic level input