Where to start? This is primarily for project studio and field recording work. It can be powered soley by its Firewire jack, which is nice. It has real Saffire preamps for microphones, which are very nice. It has a very high quality, high speed DAC, which is excellent. Finally, it drives headphones so well it kicks the hell out of many solid state dedicated headphone amplifiers in this price range. This, my friends, was not expected. This is an excellent multitasker for people who like headphones and making music, not just listening to it.
Update: after using this with Windows 8 for a while, I believe that an update is in order. The unit operates fine, but the drivers are another story. You have to be very careful how you set up the latency and audio resolution. Its a constant balance or you will get debilitating distortion and lag from the unit. A retrograde to Windows 7 repaired the issue. I have not tested (yet) the newer Scarlet system from Focusrite that is USB powered, but I suspect it will have better manufacturer support and not have the same issues. More on that later.
Update: after using this with Windows 8 for a while, I believe that an update is in order. The unit operates fine, but the drivers are another story. You have to be very careful how you set up the latency and audio resolution. Its a constant balance or you will get debilitating distortion and lag from the unit. A retrograde to Windows 7 repaired the issue. I have not tested (yet) the newer Scarlet system from Focusrite that is USB powered, but I suspect it will have better manufacturer support and not have the same issues. More on that later.
