Had the EMX5014C for a couple of months now, and have to say, for the money, it is excellent value. If you are looking for a versatile mixer that can cover 90% of small live events then this is for you. In short, it has everything you need and nothing you don't.

My set up has this generally coupled to a pair of Yamaha MSR400 active FoH speakers, so I use the internal power amps solely to supply the aux monitor channels (pair of JBL JRX112). It was bought with maximum versatility in mind for the outlay, so could equally be switched to directly run passive FoH speakers. Output sound quality is excellent. It is simple and intuitive to use, and while not having some of the extra funtionality of more expensive mixers, is more than adequate for most applications and doesn't confuse the user with unnecessary features that they don't generally need. This is important as it gets dry-hired for pub type bands and small gigs.

Good Points: One knob compression facility very useful and well implemented. On-board effects easy to select and use. Plenty of signal routing options. Sound quality is excellent. CD input via phono sockets, direct record out.

Bad Points: Would have been nice to have four band eq. Stereo outputs should be balanced. Not sure how robust it is, but then again, mine is in a flightcase.

Excellent Points: The manual supplied is absolutely one of the best ever. Apart from the usual bits telling you what the knobs and sockets etc do and where they are, there is a truly excellent section on the basics of sound mixing and what the knobs will actually do when you muck about with them.

Conclusion: For a reasonably priced, very versatile small mixer, you can't really go wrong with this. Reliability... well, I've had loads of Yamaha gear over the years and it has all proved to be pretty reliable and good quality, although time will tell.