Nice Features, Runs Hotter Than Expected

I definitely like all the features included on the front panel, like the mini-meters, PAD switches, and high pass filters. I do find myself wishing for click stops on the knobs (but then again, what has that other than multi-thousand-dollar units that say "Mastering" on the marketing literature), and I was also surprised by how much thermal radiation the tubes emit. (To be fair, I'm not really a follower of tube-based equipment, so I have no reference point.)

Great for Drum Tracking

Bought one of the first ones. Hooked up the ADAT out to a RME RayDAT and tracked some rock drums on Nuendo. Result: punchy, low noise, handles transients well, slight bit of upper harmonic warmth (tube saturation). Then I took the ADAT out and plugged into the ADAT in and used the analog outs into my hot-rodded Soundcraft Ghost (Burr-Brown op amps, low ESR caps) and then to a Lynx Aurora and Nuendo. Result: more analog sounding, better midrange, even better soft clipping in the upper harmonics. Bottom line--with the right digital interface, a good alternative to an op-amp based preamp box. The tubes are Chinese 12AX7s (total of 4 stereo), but definitely not bottom of the barrel. Some amount of hand-picking obviously goes into the tube selection at assembly time.