Feature:
came with some cool AU and VST plug-ins, but the features on the unit itself could use a few enhancements, like better metering, and more flexible monitoring! With my simple monitoring setup, I was disappointed that I needed to buy a separate monitor control system. The main outs on the unit are controlled by the same volume control as the single headphone out. There should be separate controls for each.

Quality:
I am happy with the quality. It looks and feels solid. Doesn't have a cheesy or cheap feel/look at all.

Value:
Come on, at $399? You gotta be kidding me. I bought this thing when it was $750 and feel like it was a good deal. Comparing it with the presonus firepod, the Yamaha mops the floor with it.

Desirability:
I need more lights...like metering lights!

Sound:
My first sound card...bought it based on reviews, and now, having heard other firewire interfaces, I think I bought the right one. Sound is clear with great conversion on both ends.

Ease of Use:
I guess things were worse in the past, and also worse when using multiple mLan devices. This is the only piece of mLan gear that I have, and I had it up and running in minutes with both my old Power Mac and my new MacBook Pro. Yes, I have heard that yamaha kinda dropped the ball on support, but due to my simple setup (simply using it as an A/D/A device and preamp) I never had to reach too far to make it work.

Support:
Again, I never needed any support, just a driver download from the website, which was painless. My rating of 2, however, is due to the fact that Yamaha is not creating universal binary versions of their plug-in suite that came with the i88x. Bummer.

Overall:
Great device, just get that metering and monitoring together, and I'll bump that rating to a 10!

Feature:
Direct monitoring for only 2 channels at a time. Inputs 1 and 2 have inserts. Very straight forward on the Asio side but only supports WDM for playback.

Quality:
The build quality is superior.

Value:
Hey, for this price you just can't beat it. They originally sold for $1200 and I would consider it at that price.

Desirability:
Nothing fancy about it. Nothin' ugly about it either.

Sound:
Converters are excellent. The Pres are fantastic.

Support:
The Canadian Yamaha is almost impossible to reach ever. Yamaha in the US however, are very promp with any answers to your questions.

Overall:
I know people are very reluctant to purchase M-Lan products because of it's past, but I've owned the I88X for 4 months now and I've never had a problem with performance. This is an excellent piece of gear and I would highly recommending it.

Feature:
nice little effects bundle

Quality:
Seems great

Value:
great deal! great unit!

Desirability:
it's very cool looking

Sound:
sound is excellent, awesome pres

Support:
most support for everything sucks, I have not had to use their support

Overall:
I hope it last a long time

Feature:
This unit doesn't have a mixer, like the MOTU MKII, so I cannot monitor all the channels without running cubase. This is my only complaint. But for $400.00 what do you expect?

Quality:
This unit is ``shy and pretty." :-) Very well make. Make your rack look elegent, and more pro :-)

Value:
You cannot find anything better. For guitar users, who would rather use izotope etc. for distortion, this is the perfect solution. The end result is much better than Line6 or Digitech.

Desirability:
Sure do.

Sound:
The sound of the preamp is awesome. The unit is extremely quite.

Support:
Haven't tried support yet. Web site for MLAN driver is pretty OK, if that counts as support.

Overall:
Yamaha, please put a mixer on the unit, please put 2 ADAT in/out instead of just 1. That's all.

Feature:
bundels plug ins are ok, not amazing.

Quality:
solid.

Value:
well worth it if you don;t have driver issues. I use the "autoconnector" (what you need to use if you only have one device) and it works perfectly. I understand the "MLAN tools" (for multiple MLAN connectoions) are very complicated and a bear to hook up.

Desirability:
great box, great sound, drivers scare some people off, my experience has been flawless (knock on silicone). cheers.

Sound:
excellent sounding and i must disagree with others that say the drivers suck. While it is unfortunate that the mac must be the master clock, the mac drivers seem rock solid running with 10.3.9 and Logic 7.1.

Support:
great support and knowledgeable people on the forum, no exp with yamaha the company. Kind of slow updating the drivers. limited lights on the unit for metering levels or any other visual feedback.

Feature:
Very straightforward. Sure, you can find other units with similar or better specs, but not the quality of this. One thing you will notice of this unit is how big this unit is. It is very deep, and will stick beyond your rack- I guess meaning it has a lot of power???

Quality:
AS usual, yamhaha is very high quality

Value:
9 for the "quality".

Sound:
Very very low noise floor! Excelent sound quality! Yamaha brandname

Ease of Use:
10 for the hardware, and 0 for the software. Lets face it... Yamaha needs to work more on the PC side rather than Mac. They really did terrible with the software. Once you spend hours figuring how to configure it properly, the quality will blow you away, but if you're a dummy in this kind of stuff, don't buy this.

Support:
Don't know? haven't called.

Overall:
Very satisfied with the hardware but dissatisfied with the software. Yamaha needs better software engineers working for them.

Feature:
Being accustomed with the 828mkII, I miss several handy features, like visual meters, no need to select the direct monitoring pair, and a more complete set of software controls. The interface is huge, so I cannot see any reason for using an external power supply unit (whose specs are not shown in the manual or on the back panel).

Quality:
Built very well. Very sturdy. Very pro-looking.

Value:
With the current dismissal, the $400 price cannot be beat.

Desirability:
Audio quality catches me, software support and the huge size (it doesn't fit my on-the-road recording flight case!) makes me doubt I really want it. I give it a high vote for teh stunning price/performance ratio.

Sound:
The output sound is amazing, clean and neutral, with a stunning frequency response. Details hidden by a MOTU 828mkII where fully revealed (it was like removing a soft curtain). More 'air', more 'pump'. The DI on channel 1 is crisp and with a very wide range, very good on a slapped/picked Jazz bass. The few tests done with an AT4050 proved the mic preamps clean and powerful (you need just a bit less of a quarter range to amplify a male voice).

Support:
Hopefully, nobody buys Yamaha products for their support.

Overall:
A bargain, an excellent-sounding interface.

Feature:
This is an excellent hardware. Great build quality. Nice sound. But mlan is crap, and mlan drivers are cpu hogs. Only works with XP, not with older Win2K. Mac OSX drivers are pitiful and just suck up the cpu power of my dual 2.5Ghz G5. It's shameful that a nice piece of hardware is ruined by very bad and lame drivers.

Quality:
HARDWARE is rated a 10. SOFTWARE DRIVERS are rated a 0. So the average rating is 5. But wait, without good software mlan drivers, the whole thing is as good as doorstop. So I change my rating to 1..... only because the mlan drivers are bad!

Value:
Tough call. The hardware is great. The mlan drivers are not great. How do you value that? Without great drivers, the hardware borderlines on being useless.

Desirability:
Stay away from mlan. Why do you think this unit went down in price from $1000+ to $700 to $399???? Everybody that seems to bought it probably returned it due to bad drivers.

Sound:
Great sound.... especially the preamps. Lots of gain.

Support:
No support from Yamaha. Support can be found in Yamaha forums where die-hards will defend mlan. So the reason we're all having crappy performance is due to some fault in our OS, setup, machine, computer, etc... but the problem is not with the drivers.

Overall:
The hardware is excellent build and quality. The software is not. Wish we can use the hardware in stand alone mode.

Feature:
You get a manual - poorly written - and a firewire card. What you need is a Yamaha product specialist to hook it up for you. I'm not kidding.

Quality:
How can I tell? The drivers are so poorly written that it's practically useless.

Value:
Don't waste your time or money. In six months Yamaha will not be able to give these things away.

Desirability:
It looks cool. But again, it doesn't work.

Sound:
The sounds are pretty good but remember - this product is defective out of the box. You'll spend more time on setup than you will using it.

Support:
Yamaha's support on this product is hopeless.

Overall:
I know I'm being harsh here. And I usually discount reviews like this one. But if I save one person the headaches and hassels associated with the i88x the time it has taken to write this review will have been worth it.