I used to record a lot more than I do now... I could say that I used to record. I've been trying to get back into it, but as a hobby, engineering isn't quite as portable as say guitar playing. That's really my problem. The part I enjoy is making all the bits work together and optimize for a particular workflow and sound. In the process of that work, I've pretty much stuck to the same scheme that I discovered while in school: ProTools and analog consoles with a decent set of outboard dynamics, eq, and digital efx. Back then that meant a Session 8 into a Mackie 4 bus with a Pentium computer and a 1.2GB external drive. Now that means Protools HD1 and a Speck S72 board running on a Dual CPU PowerMac. That is, if I could get the Speck running. I was considering a Speck LiLo, but ran across a locally available 90's era S72 which is similar but unbalanced, many more inputs, and includes EQ. This particular model had been modified to include balanced IO, a mix bus insert, and improced caps in the EQ. All this for 1/4 the price of the LiLo.
The channel mods were very professionally done, and each individual channel sounds great. The master section is less than wonderful. I'm busy tracking down some noise that sounds like radio static, cracking and popping. Now that I have room to work, I figured out that I could alter the sound by poking around some of the power/ground wires - including those tapped to power the master sections balanced line drivers. Esh. The picure actually shows what I found after poking around enough to follow the wires to the point in which the power supply enters the chassis. I think I have something to work on now at least.