M-Audio Profire/AKG mic... LOW volume! Power issues?

Hey guys, desperately need some help here. So I've got an M-Audio Profire 610 interface, using an AKG Perception 200 condenser mic. I am having issues with REALLY LOW VOLUME! And I'm pretty positive I have everything setup correctly. XLR to XLR mic cable(I threw out my old one and bought a brand new one, still didn't solve the problem). I've got phantom power on and the profire is connected via firewire 400. All drivers and software are up-to-date. Got the latest OSX, running all of this on a relatively new imac.
I have no idea why the AKG mic won't pick up sounds nearly as loud as it should. I have the gain up on the Profire up at 90% which is sufficient enough but the recordings are muffly and not as crisp as they used to be. Once upon a time I used this same mic with a Powerbook G4 and M-Audio Mobile Pre, and the mic worked AMAZINGLY in both Garageband and Logic Express, it picked up EVERYTHING and I never needed to put the gain on the Mobile Pre past 40%--it was a super sensitive mic. One day out of nowhere, however, the gain volume became ridiculously low and I had to max everything out on the Mobile Pre and Garageband/Logic, but it sounded like crap. No hiss and not too much distortion, just LOW volume. The mic was hardly used and I'm having a hard time believing the mic is the problem, just because I only used it a handful of times before the gain crapped out on me. The strong sensitivity came on and off a couple times after that, but the volume is now low all the time. The only other mic I've tried to use with the Profire is an SM57. It works, but really low gain. Guitars and keys have worked perfectly fine, no gain problems.
I thought the original problem back in the day was my Mobile Pre, so I bought the Profire. Now I'm still having the same problem with ultra low volume. My mic used to pick up sounds from another room or even cars driving outside my window, and now I have to sing RIGHT into it for anything to even be audible. What the **** happened to my crisp/loud sounds? Is it possible that I'm not getting enough power? Would running the Profire via firewire 800 help at all? I'm going crazy here, I have no idea why my mic totally blows now. I guess at this point it seems like the mic could be the problem, but I'm scared of buying a new condenser mic and having the SAME problem all over again.
What do you guys think? Power problems, the mic itself, wrong setup? All I want to do is pin point this thing, any help at all would seriously be appreciated!
Message was edited by: misspibbs

misspibbs wrote:
What do you guys think? Power problems, the mic itself, wrong setup? All I want to do is pin point this thing, any help at all would seriously be appreciated!
Since you've already swapped cables, I would guess it's either the mic or the interface. Since you've already swapped interfaces, logically I would guess it's the mic.
Can you bring the mic to a music store or some other place where you could plug it into another interface or mixing board and see if it also doesn't work there? That would clinch it.

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