Feature:
Inserts- Love em !! (Yamaha Heads are yet to do this).Main Inserts /returns- Smart- Insert gear or take main mix from here.Power amps - he onboard LED meter only shows level @ mixer out, and I drive the master well into the yellow constantly, and havent seen the "clip" leds come up yet. With the master @ unity, there is still approx 17db of headroom b4 power amp clipping, which is protected by on board compressor anyway. I find it more than enough power for my duo @ 8ohms to easily cope with a room of 300ish people, but you may find it lacking if your speakers arent as responsive. This hi current amp will happily drive another set of (8 ohm) bins (total of four ohms/ch ) doubling the FOH Spl if push comes to shove. I personally have not had any of the overheating problems that some others suggest- and I run this pretty hard. The heat sink DOES get hot, as its supposed to, but It is HUGE and I have felt hotter heat sinks on ducted fan amplifiers. I always leave about 6" behind it (as recommended) and all is fine. The FX are a bit limited, I would swap the flanger for a good reverd/delay combo, but are simplicity itself to adjust. I generally run Delay x 2 across the vocals with a slight lift in the presence, really nice. Break switch - Way cool. Monitor send is Pre fad AND PRE-EQ which is the only Major gripe with this head. This should have been a switched choice to allow you to send the chanel strip ed'd sig to the Monitor Bus. Sure, you can eq the monitor bus via the onboard graphic, but this has a global effect on the Monitor Output. (I have worked around it but it should have been thought out better). Splitable Main Stereo / Main+mon - For me this means "small paying gig" or "Large blow'em away gig", the less gear I have to carry the better.

Quality:
The unit looks, feels and sounds great out of the box. I immediatley purchased a soft cover for it (as I do)and it has had a few solid bumps. It has never let me down. The sockets are all genuine "Neutrik" and the pots have a very smooth "pro" feel to them, much better than my yamaha. Everything looks put together very well, and the look and finish is very pro, much better than the behringer,yami, and a world away from phonic, alto and wharfdale.

Value:
For my particular situation, nothing touches it. To have a HEAD that sounds this "clean" with inserts and "large desk" quality sound in a package that can fit on a bar stool, its great. I always get comments on our sound, and about how clear we sounded. It was expensive when I bought it, but the new price points can not be beaten.

Desirability:
Nothing touches it, (not yet anyway) but I know some companies are trying. Still the best, and people still say "wow, a mackie !!" (I kid you not).

Sound:
I use this mixer in my duo with recorded backing and live guitar and vocals. The sound is the "crispest" of any mixer I have ever used, with exceptional front end gain and chanel eq. With smart use of the chanel"input gain" knob,the chanel headroom is great with fantasticaly low noise. Clever use of the graphic is required to get the best out of your speakers, especially if you want to "warm up"the sound. I run this head with JBL Eon1500p's, and find I need to Cut 250 hz and 4Khz by approx 3db to reduce harsh and boom. The secret to the sound on these things is the Master eq, very musical and rich.

Ease of Use:
Once you understand how Mackie thinks, then the ease of use is a snap. The unity gain points (U) on all of the knobs seem to have been optimized for standard use, and produce a great sound straight up. This is also on the FX controls (I find I have only tweaked them a touch). The pre-chan gain trim is FANTASTIC, sing and adjust until the yellow led starts to blink, set chan gain to unity,(do the same on all chans for all inputs) and virtually a perfectly ballanced mix from the word go. (No more "Bass on nine" , "Vox on 3", "Git on 4.5" ETC".)

Support:
Never had a warranty claim, and I seem to know alot more about this mixer than the dealers who I bought it from. Having said that- to mackie's credit- when I was researching the 808s pre-purchase, mackie responded to all of my emails, and I actually got to talk to one of the engineers in the states when discussing specs, that was way cool. We have a 3 year warranty here in Aus, I dont know if that is the same anywhere else.

Overall:
In my current set up, this remains the pinnicle. I did pay extra for the stereo, and for my guitar fx and the stereo backing this was a choice well made. (It does mean I now have to carry a small power amp extra for the FoldBack). Only if I lost/stole/broke this one would I look at a small boutique style desk with some powered EV SRX or G2s, but until that day, this will do me fine.

This powerful mixer does it all! It has a clean powerful sound, good effects, dual power amps, 10 inputs, and two graphic EQ's for mains and monitors. Plenty of power for small to mid-sized clubs and outdoors. We use this for a four piece Beatles cover band and it is very dependable and loud when you need it. We never use anything else! Everyone compliments our sound. Mackie makes quality professional stuff. It's a steal.