iMic vs Powerwave

[ELN/rlf9]

Duo/2400 List wrote...

>From: "Mike Mallett" <mike.mallett at ntlworld.com>
>Subject: [Duo2400] 2400 audio: iMic vs Powerwave
>Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2003 12:39:05 -0000
>Message-ID: <000601c2d5b8$68a4ba40$6400a8c0 at piii>
>
>
>> Dear Gurus,
>> 	I'm going to tranfer my vinyls to MP3 using a USB card and either
>> iMic or Griffin's Powerwave. Any thoughts about which does the job =
>>better? Any USB cards I should avoid?
>> 						Donald McCaig
>
>I'm using iMic with a G4 mac with built in USB so I can't help on that.
>But I suggest you check out the Final Vinyl software you can download
>for free from Griffin's website.

I too am at this point, except my ambitions include transferring from 
78's.

A $100 Powerwave unit (DevDepot) certainly duplicates the iMic's USB 
function, but is there more to seriously consider here? Wouldn't using an 
external amp like the Powerwave improve recording quality over using the 
computer's internal amp, or is this just so much sales hype? Does iMic + 
Final Vinyl exceed Powerwave's performance?

Bob F