> I had the same problem with some cheap sound card under winlose95.  I
> examined the card and noticed that the mic preamplifier had a gain of 10
> which was far too low for the mics I have.  I replaced one resistor and
> now the gain is around 100 which is much better..

Thanks for the info.  It definitely seems like the gain from the mic
is not enough - and I guess I could crank that up with mixerctl
(though I figured that would distort the signal? - I'm not an audio
buf). 

Given that the mic is one supplied by creative to go with their sound
cards - I'd expect that they should work together reasonably.  
Anyway I have a drawer full of Sun mic's at work, I might try one of
those.

--sjg