Previously posted in another thread, I feel I should give you the necessary: "CAVEAT EMPTOR" about Tascam line of products.
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Ok, here's my experience with Tascam FW1884 and their "friendly" tech support:

I bought the damn thing right after it came out. Set it up as a stand alone mixer - ok, no problems so far, works ok. Then, I hook it up to my PC. Driver installs, but system doesn't find the damn thing. ON top of everything my boot time on XP goes up to about 5 minutes, right after I installed the driver (nothing else).

After blowing away the driver and manually wiping the registry, I reinstall the driver, this time the pc finds the FW. Now, every 30 seconds or so, I hear this loud "bzzzzzzzztttttt" sound rip through my monitors. Huh? yank the firewire cable - problem goes away. (not even using the Cubase or other product at that point). The system still takes about 5-10 minutes to boot and on top of everything, I now have a message to defrag my drives everytime i boot. so, I defrag. Next time - again. Ok, defrag. Next time - again. What the funk?!

Call the support - about 30 mins later, get to support secretary who takes my name and number and says someone will call back. 2 hours later, some doufus (sounding like a 60 year old car mechanic) calls back. After I explain the problem, it takes him about 20 minutes to "get his computer up to speed". At this point, I know I am in trouble. I give him the rundown - he has no clue. Says he will call back. Calls back another 2 hours later.

Gives me a resolution for something completely different that I didn't ask for. So, I tell him - this is not the problem I asked you to help me with. He says: "it took me two hours to research the fucking problem and you're telling me this is not what you asked me?!" at which point he hangs up.

HUH???????

So, at that point the steam is blowing from my ears, I call Tascam and ask for a manager - get his voicemail. No calls for a day. Next day some engineer calls back and talks to me for about 15 minutes and says "oh, we heard about this problem" - just take it back and get a different one.

So, I'm off to GC to return it. After explaining my warm and fuzzy love for Tascam and their friendly support, I express a sincere desire to personally deliver the product back to the vendor and drop it on the support tech's head from a 10-story building.

The friendly salesflunkie at GC tells me that I can't return the thing because it's been over 15 days. After I threaten him a great deal of bodily harm in a form of axe guitar being inserted wide side up his rectum, he involves a manager. After 30 mins of deliberations, they tell me that I can exchange it, not return it.

I'm reluctant but they bribe me with: "here's a $100 gift certificate for trying out the mixer, if it doesn't work - bring it back, we'll give you your money back". Another 45 mins to drive back home, spend another 1 hour replicating the problem, another 45 mins to drive back to the store to get my money back.

Salesflunkie meets me with "oh, i just spoke to my friend who has the same mixer and he has the same exact problem". I genuinely express my surprise in a form of sincere "NO SHIT?!"

After another 15 minutes of trying to convince me to buy a $2800 gizmo I didn't want, I finally get my cash back and off home, swearing to never spend another dime on Tascam product.

BUT YOU'RE WELCOME TO MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS. Just keep in mind: I told you so.

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Proud member of the "Filthy Zionist" coalition