Be sure and check out the info on the firmware update.  I heard about 5 years ago or more.  I never heard anything else except for a cousin to whom I gave my old Pod.  His band got it working with another Pod, or so I believe.  Check twice, firmware update once.  I bricked a Presonus FireStation with a Yamaha firmware update.

For low budget engineers, spidf can give a lot of powerful combinations. For example, i used it to combine my interface with a tascam 2488. In this case, you are basically using it as a clock source. You can also pipe a mix to the other device. This means i can record 8 drum mics on the tascam and mix it together live. I will also have all the tracks later for mixing. For the price of a used tascam you can expand your capability by eight channels for any device with spidf.

You only need to pack it when you need it. By this, i mean it is not in the rack and easily left at home.

For my rme ucx, the 2488 brings me to 24 channels.
8 from ucx
8 from Audient asp 880 to ucx on adat
8 from tascam

This at 24 44.1 only. Tascam doesn't do 48.

Using S/PDIF is fine... 
Just be sure you're using a single word-clock source.
You want one device to clock all digital audio streams.
That'll avoid any pops/ticks/glitches...

Totally. Interestingly, when I do it, I have to lock everything to the SPIDF coming in from the Tascam.
Then the RME sends that clock to the Audient.
 
Seems like magic. :-) It does work. And the RME still sounds really nice. In other words, using the clock from the Tascam doesn't seem to mess up the sound recorded by the Audient or the RME. Maybe most of the sound is the pre-amps anyway. Idk.
 
When I first started doing it, I really struggled to find a way to lock the Tascam to the RME. Never found one.

gswitz
When I first started doing it, I really struggled to find a way to lock the Tascam to the RME. Never found one.

Just skimmed thru the 2488's manual... 
Didn't see a parameter that lets you specify the word-clock source.
If there's no parameter to set clock source to S/PDIF input, you're forced to use the 2488 as word-clock master.