Feature:
I needed a mixer in a hurry because my Mackie died. I was looking at an Allen & Heath Mizwizard or a Soundcraft FX 16, but the price of the Yamaha made the difference. The built in compression is a very cool feature and eight channels of compression would cost as much as the mixer in most cases. I would prefer four band EQ, but having sweep mids really helps. Everything else is very well laid out.

Quality:
So far so good.. although I have only had it a week and used it on one all day live sound event, my other MG series mixer has been in the family for nearly two years and works flawlessly.

Value:
Again, it's four hundred bucks cheaper than an Allen & Heath Mizwizard or the Soundcraft fx16 and has features they don't offer. So...yeah, it's well worth the money.

Desirability:
Well.. I bought it so I obviously want it. Again, the built in compression is a very neat addition and makes this mixer a stand out deal.

Sound:
I own Soundcraft, Mackie, Behringer and a smaller MG series Yamaha mixer. The Yamaha is as clean and quiet as the Soundcraft and better than the Mackie and much better than the Behringers.

Ease of Use:
The signal routing could not be more simple. It is a snap to run three monitor mixes and an efx send and bring the efx back to a stereo return that also routes the effect to monitor mix (aux) one and two if the musicians want to hear the efx.. very cool. Having four channels of stereo line inputs is pretty neat too and something Allen & Heath and Soundcraft don't offer. If you have a rack of keyboard modules or multiple keys this is the perfect solution without taking up two channels for a stereo mix.

Support:
I have never had to deal with Yamaha support since none of their equipment has ever failed until ten years past the warranty expiration date.. Let's hope I never need them.

Overall:
I hope to be using this mixer in my live sound rack for many years.