MXL Mic Mate?

So, does anyone have any experience of the Mic Mate from MXL? It's a compact USB mic preamp with phantom power:

http://www.mxlmics.com/condenser_mic/micMate/micMate.htm

Maybe this is controversial, but: Digital I/O means no need for soundcard calibration, right? With this thing and S/PDIF output to your system (with DEQ2496 for instance) you avoid the low quality analogue circuits of most soundcards.

Of course there is better quality equipment out there, but this all-in-one solution is about $50.

[brucek]

Digital I/O means no need for soundcard calibration, right?

How do account for the other half of the equation? That's being the fact that the microphone is an analog device and plugs into the analog line-in of the soundcard....

The answer is to use analog line-out and analog line-in using the calibration feature of REW that results in a near perfect response.... Avoid using digital out with REW....

brucek