OK, I know there's been a lot of discussion about the ensemble, but here's my dilemma... If I spend $100 more on audio equipment, I will be in permanent moral defecit to my wife, so I can't just by the ensemble. My system consists of an A-Designs MP-2r (fully pro, versatile tube pre), a Presonus Firepod and a couple of decent mics. I was intrigued by the Ensemble because I'm pretty sure the firepod converters are just OK, but the only way I could afford to get the Ensemble would be to sell off both my MP-2r and the Firepod. So the question is this—is the combination of Ensemble's converters and pres going to give me a better overall result than my ho-hum converters and very nice pre? Maybe this is too close to call without actually listining to the two options, but I don't have any way to audition the ensemble beforehand, so if anyone has a good sense of it, I would appreciate your input. Also, I don't have a seperate clock source because I always thought that was unnecessary if you're not using any other digital devices, but am I wrong? Would it help clear things up even just for recorded analog and a few of Logic's internal synths?