Recomendations For Dsp/sound Card For New G4 Pbook Options

[BoomBoom]

Hi,

What would be a good choice of hardware to buy to give me at least 2 - 4 stereo mic inputs (preferably balanced XLR) into a G4 867mghz Powerbook? Would a PCMIA card be worthwhile or would I be better going down the USB / Firewire audio interface route?

On the PCMIA side the options I've seen are the Digigram VX Pocket V2, or the Hammerfall DSP PCMCIA Cardbus Interface which looks quite intersting (but uses a firewire port on the laptop). Anyone using any of these?

As for USB interfaces, I've only heard bad things. Is that generally still true?

Firewire looks like the best option, but pricey. Is there a cheap-ish firewire device that would meet my requirements for this Powerbook?

Any comments gratefully recieved