[nst7]

The Focusrite units are a good suggestion, and are very nice. However, they have even more inputs/outputs that you don't need right now. And you would still have to buy your Protools upgrade separately.

As to your other questions, yes, the Mbox 3 (pro or regular) is a gigantic jump in quality, not only from the older Mboxes but also from the 003. Not only that, but I think they sound better than the Apogee Duet 2 that many people rave about (and I've gotten to actually compare them). You won't be disappointed with the sound quality.

You mentioned that the Mbox Pro has more I/O than you need, but it is still probably a better solution than the regular Mbox. The regular Mbox is not sold anymore bundled with Protools (only Protools Express, a very lite version). The upgrade price from PT Express is exactly the same as from your M-Powered version. Whereas the Mbox Pro is bundled with the full Protools version.


Don't worry about an Mbox 4 anytime soon, it will be at least a few more years, based on when these came out and Avid's track record.

As for PT11, no one knows for sure, but it's likely to be this year, mainly because Avid has never gone longer than 2 years between major upgrades. This October will be 2 years since PT10. It's also possible that it could be out earlier, like the summer.

Even if it does come out, you don't have to upgrade to it right away. But if you do, it will be cheaper to upgrade from 10 than it would be from older versions.