In 2005 I had a show-down between the Roland and the Akai. I went with the VS due to the amount of powered inputs / FX features, i/o options and have been completely satisfied. It's true that most companies ended support for these machines a long time ago and "busted" them up into little computer DAW controllers and such but IMO the vs-2480 was the premiere stand-a-lone DAW for it's time.
I believe the pre-amps are pretty good (if not REALLY good) for an all-in-one machine, although it's worth noting that roland did ship out A LOT of the 2480's some where between 2002-2006 with damaged pre amps....seems they would distort well below the clipping level..and there for came... "the fix"....a recall in which users either modded it themselves, or sent it back to roland to have the work done.
I tested all 16 inputs and *thankfully* my VS seems to have escaped the recall. If any 2480 users out there think they may have this issue, or would like to check just to make sure, there's an easy test that you can perform yourself in about 20 mins
via this site
Even with support being discontinued by the manufacturer, there are lots of users still out there that have came up with great mods and extras that bring the machine up to date (some what), such as the SONG VAULT which allows you to connect a CD / DVD / External hard drive or SD through a SCSI port...or the VIRDIS system which allows for direct track import / export via drive emulation between a computer and the vs (again, via SCSI)...many of these also claim to be compatible with yama, akai, korg and other DAWs, which is good news.
All that being said, I do have a computer as well, although I use it more for my "final stage" of audio production or if I need to do some in-dept wav editing...which the Roland does do FANTASTIC editing for what it is, my only gripe is that the VS shows it's Wav forms as "snap shots" and they don't move with the music at all, which can be tricky for some editing situations.
At times in the past I've thought about giving in to the allure of computer-recording, but have still opted for the Roland. One thing I've heard to beware of when recording solely on a computer is the latency issues (unless you have the proper processor and RAM) which can really slow you down and be a bother when trying to play back 24 (or more) tracks at 24 bits each with 1-2 plug ins running on each track...can add up!
I will also say that
the Zoom r16 is a great little machine for portable recording (you can power it with AA batteries!) just pop out the SD card (or plug in the USB) and import the WAVs into reaper, acid, pro-tools. It can also double as a controller too if I'm not mistaken.