location mixer

I'm very happy with the recordings I make with the PCM-D50 but as I have access to some high quality condenser mikes I was looking for a way to hook them up. I am also a big fan of transformer coupling, if you ever used a long cable in a theatre you will understand why. Now Sony makes this nice little box  with 2 high quality transformers and 48V supply but it costs almost as much as the recorder itself, this would be the last option.
So I set out to look for other options like a small hi-q preamp. Battery powered, I don't want to carry around a 25m power cable, everything needs to fit in a bag. Now this limits the options somewhat as I have not *that* deep pockets and constructing one myself is not an option as this is by no means simple and transformers are not exactly cheap.
There are excellent preamps from Sound Devices like the "mixpre2" and the 302 but my heart really melted for the Shure FP-33 (I'm a long time Shure fan). Unfortunately that doesn't come cheap, ebay perhaps? No luck, then I had the bright idea to use some french search terms and would you believe it some guy 3 km from my office had one for sale for 500 euro!

Long story short, here it is

And you know what, it sounds great! And don't give this to teenagers, the headphone amp will blow their ears out...