Fairlight-CMI

Hello to all,
I'm new to this forum & a recent proud & happy IIx owner.
I chose the IIx because of its character & also because I realised 
that this "grain & sound" obsessed me for a long time before being 
conscious it came from a Fairlight... 

I'm using it & facing some small difficulties in the recording to get 
what I'm expecting a step farer.I'm working on a small home studio 
configuration so I forget about the Neve / SSL / Avallon & all that 
stuff that makes life so magic in the recording world ...
The thing is, I wonder how to enhance this basic grain from flute & 
Sararrh sounds.
I'm using a "MOTU 896" with a "mac G4" running "Logic Audio 4.8".
I'm recording in 48khz & 24 bits.
at the moment I'm using a "promix 01" to premix the 8 outputs from 
the IIx...Of course I use some various plug-ins to bring in the mix 
what I can hear when I play the IIx alone.
By using some IIx samples via kontakt I realised that recording in 
96khz was making the thing a lot more real.but my system is on the 
knees in 96khz & There are some bugs appearing ;
so OK the sampling rate is very impotant to get the real sound, but I 
wonder if there isn't a good preamp / EQ or even compressor(tube or 
not ) that could gently bring the basic recording  on the next level.
the MOTU preamps are quite transparent, so should I try something 
colourful to enhance the IIx original sound  ?   
Can anyone help ?
I'd be very happy to shae your experience about recorng the CMI IIx .
Thanks for reading, & nice to meet you !
Patrice Jacquot.