I'm just not sure what Firewire interface to buy

Question

I've been lightly researching FW interfaces for the past 4-5 months and had my heart set on the Firebox until the Edirol FA-66 came out. Then I decided to wait until reviews of the Edirol surfaced before making my decision between the two interfaces. However, I cannot find a review for the Edirol! It's been out since April, has it not?
And now the Saffire comes along and throws a wrench into my research.
I'm going to be purchasing a unit in the next month or two.
My needs are:
Record Vocals (mic to come)
Record Acoustic Guitar (SM-57 for now, better mic(s) later)
Record a djembe (African Drum)
Use Midi from a keyboard
Use some drum loops until I can record a real set
I want to eventually use 2 mic's to record my acoustic guitar and may also want to use a vocal mic at the same time (3 inputs).
Price isn't much of a factor but less than $500 would be ideal. I don't NEED a Firepod ($600) so I am not considering it. So I guess price is a factor then .
I'm frustrated! Computer specs are in my siggy. In addition to my iMac, I have the newest generation 12" iBook.

Answer 1

I have an Edirol FA-101 (the big brother to the FA-66), and I'm a big fan of the Edirol Firewire interfaces for several reasons. The below comments apply to the FA-66 as well.
1.) It's hot-pluggable, as opposed to M-Audio interfaces. The chip that Edirol uses apparently senses when it's connected so as not to blow your Firewire port.
2.) No driver is necessary. The Mac OS has support for the Edirol FW interfaces built in, so there's no driver conflicts or updates necessary.
3.) It's one sharp looking interface; the red is awesome! (Okay, this shouldn't be a factor, but it still looks cool).
4.) Edirol has a lifetime warranty on non-moving parts. MOTU, for example, has a paltry 90 day warranty. I love MOTU interfaces as well (I had an 828 for a long time), but the Edirol warranty is great.
5.) Edirol's tech support is great. I always get an e-mail response from them within the hour, no matter how trivial the question.
So, I strongly recommend Edirol as you can see, but there are some great interfaces out there, so it'll be hard to go wrong. I would probably stay away from M-Audio simply because of their hot-plugging issues, but if you play by their rules, even their interfaces get good reviews. Still, I'd go for Edirol if I were you.
Good luck!