Without wanting to get involved in politics, the brand name behringer does not automatically make something bad. The ADA-8000 has been getting excellent reviews from all over the spectrum.
If you really are anti-behringer though, and you still want a protools competetive system, there are similar items that would only be about $50 extra per channel, and are well respected.
I use Ableton Live for composing music, with the new version 4 that is due out soon (I Hope!) I will be able to input midi and have full vst support. Live runs on both pc and mac check it out here: http://www.ableton.com/