I'm back with an RME Babyface for mobile/live work mainly as I have a Metric Halo box for home/studio.

Babyface so far:

pros:
1. size=true portability
2. great sound from such a small device
3. awesome build
4. TotalMix/driver
5. push knob and button functionality is simple but v. effective

cons/ideas:
1. breakout cable....just dangling around, ugly, easy to break
2. 4 outs but really feels like 2 plus headphones - I don't want to use some kind of heaphone splitter and the headphone-based amp to take a sgnal out/in for processing. To me 4 outs should mean 4 identical outs. Of course I was aware of this when I purchased but just saying.
3. for an ever increasing number of people in a live performance/dj situation RME-quality sound and performance is desirable and viable. I had a UCX but even half-racks don't feel portable - they're square, need cases and power supplies and are over-specced for many as described. A hopefully simple-ish answer I believe that would make the Babyface FAR more practical, functional and desirable to that ever-increasing market would be to sacrifice the Hi-Z in on the main box and add chan. 1/2 outs instead, keeping the headphone out as well of course. Even just making the built-in 1/2 outs as RCA would work for a vast majority of people. Why do this? The large market I describe don't want to use breakout cables in a live/dj situation - they're messy and risky in crowded live situations and move them enough and they weaken very quickly. If you want to keep the basic Babyface form and must have a breakout cable then please a/add a pair of 'true' outs 3/4 and make the headphone out switchable between 1/2-3/4 and put 1/2 outs on the box itself. b/put full 'true' outs 1,2,3,4 on the breakout cable along with Hi-Z, secondary headphone and midi.

For live and dj use I was using a Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6 > build, feature and layout-wise I think this is one of THE best-designed boxes of this scale on the market. Please take a look. I have dreamed so often of a maker such as RME making their own version of this box. It would be ideal for live situations and for the ever-increasing number of people working ITB with small amounts of hardware processing requiring outs 3/4 it would be stellar.

Apologies for the length of the post but I'm continually surprised by the lack of a higher-end box aimed at this large and growing market that includes many like myself who have been doing this a long time, are in their 40s and have disposable income they're happy to spend on quality gear to achieve great performance and wonderful sound. NI have done it, Apogee made the Quartet but it's not a box you can really put in a bag for a club or festival show, Novation have just launched the AudioHub 2 x 4 (http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/nov … ub-606958/)...yes but it's still lower-end...please RME....someone has to step up and make the killer live/small ITB 4 I/O studio box and take all that money! Right now it just seems to all be 2,8, breakout cables or lower-end