I've probably gone over this a thousand times, but it's really such an impossible task to decide how to spend your money on recording equipment. You can read a dozen reviews and never reach a conclusion, because, in the end, you still need to hear it. Demoing all the equipment can be ridiculously impractical, especially if your options are pages long and you don't readily have access to all of it. So I guess all I'm saying is that making a effort to critically and sensibly appropriate your funds for recording equipment is pointless -- buy what seems good, and be happy with it. Hell if you or I will notice the difference, anyhow.

With that said, I still don't know what to buy.