i have the tascam us122:
very stable, pretty solid unit, made of metal, built in phantom power and direct monitoring, reliable midi in and out, decent preamps, comes with a good program, cubase
if you can find the us224, even better, because it is also a controller, so you can stop start rewind, ff, pause the music programs with the us224, instead of relying on that annoying mouse all the time. the only drawback to the us224 vs the us122, is the us224 does not have phantom power, no biggie though....
all in all, im very satisfied with both the 122 and 224, tascam is a very reliable, well built product
if youre also looking for affordable near field monitors to monitor your computer music, at a really great price, i also have the Tascam VLS21 Compact Monitoring System with Subwoofer (yes subwoofer! that's not possible! yes, it is...) very clean accurate, 2 satelite speakers are thin, like, less than an inch thick, makes them very portable in your studio, and can even hang on the walls if you wish... the sub only kicks in when the mix has the low end sounds: details from tascam:
"The left and right speakers use NXT technology drivers for full-range sound in a thin driver package. This approach improves on the traditional woofer and tweeter design by eliminating the phase cancellation that occurs when using multiple drivers and crossovers. NXT technology drivers provide wider dispersion, more uniform loudness and reduced room interaction than competing technologies. A single NXT driver covers a wider range than traditional drivers, reducing the phase distortion caused by using multiple drivers and crossovers."
