I just bought an 1880 and was pleasantly surprised with how easy it was to sync to my sequencer and begin recording. I'm only familiar with the machine on a very superficial level so far, though. I know a lot of people disagree, but I like the looks of the 1880 and the already-released-in-Europe 890 better than the old gray 1680 and 880EX; they look way better than their pictures online would indicate.

Animaniac: (addendum to your post)"...more user-friendly than the 1880" until the 1880 is hooked up to the computer and you're trying to get those 8 (ahem...stereo) tracks mixed down to 2! Of course, you'll be spending the $700 you saved on something really cool, eh?!