Another very satisfied ADAM owner here! I have a pair of the 'older' A7, and they are wonderful.
But it's shocking to hear that You are not pleased with the Focusrite?!
I've been using their Saffire PRO 40 firewire interface for years now, without a single problem. (even recorded a couple of live shows with it)
I've used it with both my MacPro rig and also a MacBookPro, running Logic 7 - 9, rock solid!
Easily the most robust and good sounding interface I've tried.
Have you been in contact with Focusrites support?They do have a stellar reputation both for their customer support and fixing bugs in their drivers. (and they seems to be Mac users themselves!)
I wouldn't say that the mix software is crap, but it IS confusing. But it seems to be a common problem with audio interface software, the more it can do, the harder it gets to figure out how...
Just to report back, it was a bug in the iMac’s FireWire systems. A bit too much daisy-chaining going on there. I since switched to the USB version of the Saffire on the iMac and use the FireWire one on the macBook. Both work sterling. And the mixing software I got used to. Set once and forget.