What was your plan to control the volume on your speakers?
Directly from the soundcard? Thats not recommanded.
I have Dynaudio BM6a and use this unit to control the volume. Then there wont be a problem using the m-audio with the unbalanced output.
yes, sorry. that’s it.i was writing from memory. it’s a really good unit, i got to know it when i was at UMBC one night helping put one of the studios back together. the other advantage that this unit has over the m-audio is that if your upgrade here is part of an ongoing expansion to your home studio then this would honestly be a good keystone to put at the center of your rig. you can do enough with it, and well enough to be satisfied with it’s performance and the results you get from it. if you can afford it, get it. 
Pysj, I was planning to control them straight from the audio interface. I could use something like the Ultralink Pro MX882 you suggested, yes, but I guess I’d prefer a single unit that just does everything. And on second thought, the MOTU 828mkII isn’t even near as expensive as the higher-end 869HD model, so I suppose it really is worth the price for a more pro-level interface than M-Audio’s FireWire 410.
And I see you have BM6As? What do you think of them?
And Florian, yeah I agree that the 828mkII would be the better way to go if I’m looking at an ongoing expansion (this actually being my starting point). I guess the only con I can see is that the monitor outs are 1/4" jacks instead of XLRs, but that should only be a minor issue and I certainly wouldn’t spend 1.5 times the price of the 828mkII to get the 869HD just for that, even though it also has 192kHZ I/Os, but I think 96kHz should be more than sufficient for now.
Yes, I sure can afford it and I think this is what I’ll be getting. I’ve been saving up for all this equipment for too long now and it’s time to spend some money. 
can i have one too? 
Well… 
Actually I’ve been looking more into the 896HD and there might just be a slight chance I could end up going for that, though on the other hand I’d probably be better off spending the additional money on a condenser mic or something. At one stage I just thought the 828mkII had unbalanced outs just like the FireWire 410, but it turns out a balanced signal can also be sent along a cable with a TRS connector, which the outs of the 828mkII are. Only I still don’t know if there is actually an improvement in quality in using either a balanced XLR connector or a TRS connector to send out the balanced signal to the monitors. That sort of brings me back to my original question about having 1/4" monitor outs instead of XLR outs, but I’ll ask this at the retail store today and hopefully come to a decision between the 828mkII and the 896HD.
First of all a small explanation of balanced/unbalanced connectors:
http://www.planetoftunes.com/record/balunbal.html
A good quality balanced TRS cable will do just great.
I wouldnt worry to much about xlr vs TRS balanced connectors.
Even unbalanced TRS with high quality cables/connectors will do a great job (if they are not too long). I doubt you will hear the difference.
And btw… the BM15a’s are some of the very best speakers you can get. Look forward to those babies!
cheers
Thanks for the link.
Yeah, I understand now that the only thing balanced TRS cables wouldn’t be able to do in a studio environment is to carry a +48V phantom power signal to a microphone, which is why mic cables use XLR connectors. But with monitors it really wouldn’t make much of a difference at all (provided they’re not too long, as you said too) and so I bought the MOTU 828mkII yesterday! 
AUS$1,745. It’s a pity all this equipment is so much more expensive here than in Europe and the States, but yeah I’m definitely looking forward to connecting it all up when I go back home to New Zealand in just over a week, not to mention buying the BM15As over there. I briefly managed to trial them when I was in Holland last year and I compared them to the Mackie HR824s, which I was thinking of getting at first. But I remember the BM15As just having so much better stereo imaging, they simply blew the HR824s away. At the time they just seemed a little too expensive, but I now realise they should be well worth the three months of hard work I spent on farms out in the Australian outback.