Favorite Qur'an translation and why?

'As-salaamu `alaykum wa-ra7matu Llaahi wa-barakaatu, everyone! I thought I might start up a discussion about the topic of people's preferred Qur'an translations, since it's a topic I'm always interested in talking to others about.

The first translation that I read seriously was Yusuf Ali's, and the version I picked up from the masjid also had his commentary. I read this back before I converted. Yusuf Ali's translation has a real "New King James" flavor to it, which appealed to me, since I come from a Christian background. Additionally, the edition I had translated 'Allaah, and that was another detail I liked and still do. Islam was still a foreign, unknown faith to me at the time, so just reading that it was a book about God and the prophets (AS) that I grew up with actually made a huge difference in my willingness to accept that it was indeed an Abrahamic faith. Yusuf Ali's commentary is also wonderful. Although I now know it's not very scholastic, it's just a joy to read how the man brings out the awe of our scripture, and he does so quoting various sources known to him, ranging from Western literature to Indian classics. It's a grand translation that could only come from a highly educated man from British India.

Now, however, although I still love Yusuf Ali's translation and commentary, my favorite Qur'an translation is the Study Qur'an. It's a highly scholastic book with commentary that pulls from various classical commentators, while also including some commentary from the modern Muslim schoalrs who worked on it. In my opinion, it's the best English translation currently around. The only negative I might say about it is that it doesn't have the Arabic text (so it's not technically a Qur'an). But hey, that just means I don't need to be in a state of purity to read it, so that negative is actually quite convenient.

So what about y'all? Have any thoughts and feelings about the various translations you might have come across?