firewire AND usb are part of the thunderbolt spec. So expect brake out boxes... 

+1 for the Quadcapture. I recently replaced my ESI Juli@ PCIe interface so I had better input options, but its just better all round.

The Juli@ drivers were pretty stable but would crash in certain circumstances. The Quadcapture has been rock solid.

USB audio has come a long away and windows firewire support seems to have regressed. 

I spent another hour yesterday trying different things to make the Saffire work, no joy. I suppose I'll get a VRM box and connect it via SPDIF for virtual monitoring and a 2nd headphone out. 

I have a VRM box but don't find it that helpful.  I rarely use it. 

I have a Rolls 6 output headphone rack unit so I don't need the VRM for another headphone jack.  A four port headphone amp would be less than the VRM box.

I've used a Saffire Pro24 for almost 2 years now using the latest drivers and no issues.  They have not updated drivers for Win 8 so I'm sticking with Win 7 on the DAW.

I use a Saffire pro40 and an older UA-25 (USB)by Roland on different computers, but each one with Win7 64bit. Both items work flawlessly; the saffire has more features, which i appreciate much to work with. But that's natural, because of their different pricerange. Happy New Year to all you nice people in this forum! Michael