Speaking of stuff with quirks, my Mackie 32x8 mixer also has a couple little flaws. One is the main VU meter needle - it's a bit warped as it was stuck and my bandmate in 1999 decided to fix it

It also has a channel that doesn't work - it hasn't since I remember having it (and I bought it new in 1996, but didn't use all channels for a long time - I found out about this about the same time, around 1998-99 or so). As far as I know, it's always been a 31-channel board. And the entire thing is just one huge integrated circuit, so I doubt it's economically viable to get the channel fixed.
So, a board that could probably get me 600 bucks if it was working fine, is probably worth 250-300 when I sell it next year...
On the EMU - I think I'd have to find an older G5 mac to run that card. All the newer ones are PCIe... but the good news is, apparently some of those older models support memory up to 8Gb and have dual core processors, so it could be worth buying one if I find the right one.
Another option is a "hackintosh", right? Does it come with a legit copy of the Mac OS? If not ,forget it.
Oh and how's the latency on that EMU? I suppose not as good as PCIe but better than USB.
Edit: actually, newer Mac Pros might have PCI slots. I must dig deeper...