[ddwhitney]

HD Native doesn't sound like it's what you need. It offers absolutely no processing relief unless you have outboard gear as inserts on some other preamp like the HD/192 I/O or a mixer like the Venue, Icon Etc....(hardware inserts)

HD Native is an "Advanced Music and Post-Production Core System", I think people are thinking it more than what it really is. Do you need 192 tracks and 128 bus' that have no TDM ability? It does bug me that the claim is made that it's "lowest latency and highest stability of any native system" when the latency is tied to hardware inserts and not software ones.

I don't know if by classical you mean, composing or tracking. If your tracking orchestras then HD TDM is your only real AVID solution, if LE has been working why change? You'll still have to rely on your RTAS plugs. If your using a lot of VI plugs, HD Native won't do anything really.

If I were you.... I would wait to see what happens with LE in November before spending anything unless you take Barry's advice and go full HD TDM. From what I've seen thusfar, new LE hardware will more than likely be getting onboard DSP for reverb and delay to help the monitoring latency issues, RTAS isn't exactly real time for some plugs...

If $4000 is tough to come by, you don't want to spend it until all the cards are on the table..