Hi there,
I bought an MCI JH110C about a year and a half ago.
It's a fine machine. The main problem with the JH 110s (and I think this is mentioned above) is that the connections on some of the machines were poorly done. It's not a problem with my machine, but I recall seeing somewhere that the machines with real problems have a certain color on the connections (blue or red). If you can avoid getting such a machine, you'll be sitting pretty.
The biggest advantage to these machines is that maintenance on them is pretty easy that there's several active resources (Blevins in Nashville, ladewd on this forum and former MCI tech Glenn Coleman) to help you deal with parts and maintenance issues. I knew nothing about analaog machines a few months ago, but after some study and talking to the folks mentioned above, I can troubleshoot signal problems and do a pretty comprehensive alignment. And I think it sounds fine. In addition, the prevelance of these machines and the fact that they share parts with the 2 and 4 track models means that you won't be stuck looking for a critical part. I bought the 8 track, a 1/2" 2 track and a 1/4" 2 track (for parts), spending about $3000 for all three machines.
I'm in NYC as well and am running a home studio with the 110 as my main machine. PM me if you'd like to come by and take a look at it.
= Justin