Voice Over Preamp, Home studio pre amp Options

[dagmur]

I have started doing voice overs and I am very new to the industry and recording. I have started my set-up with a MBOX2, ProTools LE 7, and a AKG 451 mic. (The MBOX was a recommendation)

Everything works well but I'm not getting the depth to my voice that we get when recording in a commercial studio. Granted, the caliber of the equipment in the commercial studio is far superior to my small set-up (except for the mic, it is the same). Someone told me I should try a quality preamp between the mic and the MBOX.

The good news is that this is strictly for voice over, I don't have to worry about singing vocals or musical instruments.

Does anyone have any suggestions or preamp recommendations?

[earworm]

the Symetrix 528 is a well known preamp for music- and broadcast studios;,
it has a preamp with phantom, a de.esser, compressor and parametric eq,
it has a real powerful sound, you can get those typical fat and deep sounding radio commercial sounds from it when you push the settings,
it can get a bit agressive if you push it hard, but everything i've ever tracked with it cuts trough the mix like a knife trough butter


there are millions of choises but i compared this one with several other channel strips and preamps and like it,
you should be able to find one (second hand) for around €300