The ART TubeFire 8 FireWire Recording Interface is an excellent 8-channel preamp for recording direct-to-drive to FireWire equipped Macs or PCs. Fitting nicely into a single rack unit,TubeFire 8 has 8 quality second-generation Class-A vaccuum tube mic preamps and eight balanced outputs. Every input channel has both XLR and 1/4-inch TRS balanced inputs with, 70db of gain, -10db Pad, high pass filter, phase invert, clip indicators, and wide range LED meter for monitoring levels. These warm, tube driven mic/line inputs provide clean, quiet gain and a high-level of transparency. On the flip side, the ART TubeFire 8 can be turned into a reliable multichannel audio output for your computer through its high-quality D/A converters and 8 balanced outputs. You can use the headphone output or for low-latency input monitoring, or you can combine the channels for an integrated mono or stereo mix for general monitoring of audio playback from the computer. Either way, you'll be impressed with the quality of the sound you're getting. As a bonus, TubeFire 8 is packaged with Cubase LE software.