The lowly M Box. Many of us have them sitting on our desks as we read and write in this forum, yet they are slagged (rightfully) for their sub-par converters and shitty preamps. I think it's time to once again point out that before the M Box, there was only the Digi 001 for the "home" Pro Tools user and that before that, there was nothing! You wanted Sound Tools (as it was known back in the day)? Fine. That'll be forty grand, please. Cash only. Oh, did I mention it was only two tracks?
Most bitch about how "expensive" great converters like the Fireface 800 are, while back in the mid Nineties even, life was much worse off. And there are so many great software options now with bazillions of tracks and all kinds of great included stuff. That's not even to mention that unless you were a bona fide rock star like Pete Townsend, one of the first owners of a home studio, that not that long ago, a home studio where one could put together the baller tracks that we pass around in this forum daily were completely unobtainable. Praise be to the audio Gods, Eastern manufacturing and software!