The AudioBox USB 86 is good. No boutique preamps of course, but it's built like a small tank and the sound is clean without audible artifacts. Most importantly for me, it has MIDI. That's why I chose it over similarly priced Focusrite products.
One small gripe I have is with the gain knobs. Their physical arrangement is less than immediate to grasp (I admit this is a minor issue). Also, I don't like the input/playback balance knob. I would have preferred to have separate potentiometers, or at least a signal path/mixer application in the audio card driver bundle (RME or MOTU style).
The software that comes with the card isn't bad at all, but Studio One is a crippled version that won't load VST/VSTi's, making it almost useless as a real production DAW. The provided plugins are really good - but remember, not VST/VSTi format, so you can only use them with this limited version of Studio One. Lexicon wouldn't even reply to my many messages asking for authorization info, so I wrote it off. Don't count on Lexicon plugins with this bundle.
Overall, I'm very happy with this card. I use it mainly for small edits on a secondary computer, with little recording (quick fixes on direct bass, synth noises). It works quite well, and I would choose it again if I only needed 2in/2out.
