ive read articles that state that serial/midi performance with 68K cpu units can be superior to powerpc units because the entire serial/midi subsystem is written in 68k code.

and that even in mac os 9.2.2 the mac os is running bits of 68k code in emulation to process the serial/midi data.. and at a low level the system was never rewritten from its native 68k platform..

this would be why i would consider getting a 68k cpu board to swap in.. then i would have a cheap + easier to find version of a color classic that runs with an IDE hard drive! (modern 80gb sata drive with IDE converter board) .. albeit unable to run system 6.. but probably can run system 7.1