Has anybody checked out Phonic's Helix firewire mixers?

Like you, slipmip, I was very interested in the Phonic Helix mixer/sound card. I did a lot of research (as much as I could find) before making my purchase and deciding to take the plunge. I bought the model 18 version and have spent a couple of days working with it.

It's still a bit early for a complete review but here are my early impressions. First of all at the going price, there is just nothing to compare with it. You get a mixer which can be used with or without your DAW (I plan to use mine in both recording and live situations). Plus you get an external firewire sound card with 18 inputs. That includes eight XLR mic inputs and the sound is great.

I haven't played with the latency settings just yet. Out of the box my latency setting in Sonar 4.2 using the ASIO driver is 9.2 ms. A bit high for some, but again I haven't even tried to tweak it. Also I have to say that installation was the easiest and quickest of any sound interface I have ever installed.

I have had an occasional dropout, but that's my own fault. I try to do too many things at once - like saving while the tracks are playing. (This is a habit I developed while working in Pro Audio 9 with midi tracks only.) Other than that I have been very pleased with the unit.

Oh, one more thing that concerns me. The unit does get rather warm on the underside. Mine sits in a well-ventilated area so I don't think that will be a problem, but if you did rack mount it (racks included) it might be a concern. Also the firewire cable they include is only one meter long. I guess they had to cut costs somewhere.

Granted it's not RME or MOTU quality, but for my purposes and pocketbook, so far I am very satisfied.