well, i got a berry unbalanced, I didn't worry about brand on this, I liked the switches and case, easy to replace the whole thing if I need to. I popped a pic of it under my DAW in Fostex forum in thread about wedging up the units...
I got a 8 cable snake for cheap also w/ rca and 1/4 tr. So far I'm only using half of the channels. Somehow trs bays were cheaper, odd, but maybe just more common?