I own one and have been happy with it, but am getting a new interface as the expandability isn't going to meet my needs. By this I mean that it only has S/PDIF that adds 2 channels, and nothing else. For MOST people, this will probably be just fine, but I'm looking for Word Clock, AES/EBU, ADAT (which will add 8 channels of digital), etc.
Pre's are nice for the price range, and the converters are reasonably nice sounding. Converter quality is important for the conversion from analog input to digital and from digital back to analog output. I think for the money, the Firepod is not a bad deal at all. I'd look on eBay right now, there are usually a couple on there that go for much less than the $600 standard new price.
Drivers are pretty solid, at least ASIO in my experience, but don't expect frequent updates from Presonus on those.
Make sure you have balanced inputs on your monitoring system too (this could be an amp with passive monitors, active monitors, etc.). I don't have balanced inputs on my amp (which is actually a decent old Roland amp), and I'm getting a pretty good hum coming from the outs of the Firepod. The Firepod has all balanced outs and is not grounded - which I personally think is important. You may or may not have issues if you're not running balanced - not trying to scare you, just letting you know my experience.
In general, think it would be a good place to start for you. Not hard to setup and use, and it really does sound pretty nice. Having eight decent pre's is a nice thing - especially if you plan on tracking a band, drums, etc. If you really don't need those eight pre's, you can probably do better for the $$ and just get a couple inputs and/or pre's on other units.
For more discussion on the Firepod, try a search here. It's been discussed quite a bit around here.
