I, too, have a love hate relationship with the Nucleus. I am tactile, and like operating knobs and faders and integrate better with my projects than when operating a mouse. But here are the issues.

1. As Nitchi said, glitches with Ethernet and transport controls.

2. Issues with USB and frequent sample rate errors...having to increase buffer size to accommodate these issues.

3. I rate the sound quality as 4, not 5, because I believe the converters are very good, but they have not worked consistently, without lapsing into distortion and noise, for an entire session. I do not/have not used the preamps.

Since I have had the unit, I have spent as much time with technical problems as I have actually being productive. I have spent more money updating my computer (a late '08 Mac Pro, 8 core, 20gb ram with no Thunderbolt) in the hope of a breakthrough where everything works and is stable, but have not reached that point.

At this point, I am pulling the Nucleus out of the system and returning it, sad to say. Very sad to say, because no matter how efficient or powerful the unit is, if it ain't stable and predictable, it's an impediment.

I too have had a love/hate relationship with my SSL Nucleus. Where to start?

1. Out of the box, the right-side scribble strip was dead, and fader 5 was lame. At the cost of $187, I sent it back for repair. These issues are now fixed.

2. Using the built-in USB 2.0 interface, I get loss of lock-up, sample-rate tracking errors, hard digital distortion, and loss of connectivity over ipMIDI. After fiddling with system preferences and resetting the ip address, gateway address, submask, and device ip address, the control surface functionality has been reliably established.

3. SSL finally admit that their interface driver is not compatible with Yosemite OS or USB 3.0, so I buy a Resident Audio T4 Thunderbolt interface for $450.

4. I finally get up and running with this, only to find that whenever I try to set or adjust the faders while holding my guitar (plugged into an amp), the faders go into "resist" mode, even though none of the automation is activated. Putting my guitar back on the stand, I can miraculously move the faders freely without the "hand of God" moving them forcefully to random locations.

5. After about 1-2 hours of operation, the programmed soft keys (which run through the USB connection instead of ipMIDI) stop working.

6. I'm somewhat disappointed that in spite of the Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 specifications and protocol being announced many years prior to this that SSL is so poorly prepared for it. At no time in my research and discussions with SSL at trade shows prior to purchase through direct face-to-face inquiry did they reveal problems with current Apple hardware or software. I had the option of buying a refurbished Mac Pro with USB 2.0 and an older operating system, but they never steered my research elsewhere.

I've owned my Nucleus now for over three months, and have yet to complete a single project.

SSL has been fairly responsive to my difficulty, but their patience with me is flagging. Therefore I am reaching out to the user community for advice. My studio is equipped with all new gear:

Apple iMac 27-inch i7 Quad Core Intel 3.5ghz w/USB 3.0 & Thunderbolt
Yosemite 10.10.2
Logic Pro 10
SSL Nucleus serial No. NU1351
Firmware 1.6/2
Resident Audio T4 Thunderbolt interface

Reaching out to anybody who can help solve the "fighting faders" mystery!

I am writing this review because I think this control surface is excellent and I feel I owe SSL at the very least a good review!

Purchased this control surface half a year ago, used. It's been great.

The preamps are that SSL sound you expect and I use them for everything I can!

The faders are awesome and the way it all works with plugins and daw's is outstanding!

The big volume knob is also super fun!

It took me some brain work to get it functional with all the ipmidi stuff but it's really no biggie. If you follow the directions it's simple.

I work ITB and this piece really has found it's place as the heart to my studio! I finally can twiddle knobs and feel like I'm using my software just like gear!