I think you have to decide what your goals are. I'd really like to make my CD I am working on to approach the sound quality of the CD's of my favorite artists. Bottom line for me -- it ain't gonna happen. I think I would need to spring for a couple $500 - $1,000 mics, $300-500 for a good pre-amp, better monitors, a better audio interface and room treatment -- I could easily spend $5,000 to get that better sound (and that is still just using software plug-ins for compression, eq, ...)

Or I could trudge along with my less than $100 mic, $29 pre-amp, $150 monitors, old tascam us-224 interface and get 80% of the way there. I think I can get decent sounds and recording with what I have. If I laid down $5,000 and spent the time required, I could get 90% there. If I wanted to get 100% there -- I would just go to a pro studio.

EDIT: I didn't answer your question: Do "Home Budget" preamps do anything for vocals? The answer is probably no.

Last edited by Kevin Emmrich; 02/21/12 11:13 PM.
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Kevin @ bandcamp: Crows Say Vee-Eh