I suppose it depends on what you're after. In this price range you might consider the Edirol FA-101 (at least that's what I think it's called -it's the red one), or the M-Audio FW1814. The M-Audio has more routing flexibility, while the Edirol has balanced ins and outs. Edirol equipment is surprisingly good value for money, and while it's not considered 'professional', it sounds at least as good as some of the MOTU units that are cosidered professional. You might also consider the Edirol UA-1000. Again I'm not sure if I got the name right -it's the blue 19" unit. It has four preamps that are great for the price, although it's not Firewire but USB2. It's a surprisingly high perforance unit, but certain flaws (especially the implimentation of its ADAT functionality) has stopped the company breaking into the professional market with this unit. Anyway it is an extremely good unit for a bargain price.

I'm sure there are other options, and I'll post again if I think of anything.

Good Luck with it!
John Stafford

the new motu traveler may be around those 500, 600 i think...

thanks

thanks for the ideas. I've been looking around. How can you tell how many inputs (tracks at one time) it can record, what does like: 6in 10out mean? I want about 4-6 ins at once. sorry i don't know the terms. - caleb