Least reliable firewire interface?

[bulls hit]

OK my firepod just bit the dust on me and I'm looking to buy another 8-input firewire interface.
Reading reviews, going to the support forums etc, it's hard to get a feel for how bad any given unit really is, as even the best gear will give some trouble.
The firepod was great when it was going and I don't really want to buy another Presonus unit, but I don't want to get something even less reliable.
What I would really like to know is if you own one of the following manufacturer's firewire interfaces, please respond with an indication that either

1. It has always worked pretty much flawlessly
2. It works OK, but you've had issues with drivers, dropouts, glitches, instability etc.
3. It's died, you're dead in the water, gotta be shipped for service

I'm using a PC, but I'm interested in any MAC experiences as well.

Many thanks...

EDIT: Here's the results so far (1 = superb, 2 = intermittent grief, 3 = just kill me now)

Alesis .......1 1 3 2 1
Echo ........1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1
Focusrite ..2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 1 3
M-Audio ...2 2 2 2 1 2 3 2 2 1 3 1 2 3 1 3 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 2 1 2
Mackie .....1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1
MOTU ......2 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 3 1 1 1 2 1
Presonus ..1 2 3 1 2 2 1 2 3 1 1 1 3 1 2 1
RME ........1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Tascam ...1 1 1 1 1

RANKING

Ranking position calculated on number of satisfied customers (score of 1) minus number of dissatisfied customers (score of 2 or 3)
From best to worst:

RME(18-0) = 18
Echo(17,1) = 16
Motu(15,5) = 10
Mackie(11,2) = 9
Tascam(5,0) = 5
Alesis(3,2) = 1
Presonus(8,8) = 0
Focusrite(3,8) = -5
M-Audio(7,20) = -13


Alternative ranking position calculated on number of satisfied customers divided by total number of customers

RME 100%
Tascam 100%
Echo 94%
Mackie 85%
Motu 75%
Alesis 60%
Presonus 50%
Focusrite 27%
M-Audio 26%

[Mandachuva]

Worked with:
Focusrite Saffire LE (for a year) / Saffire Pro 10 I/O (for half a year)
- both lost connection from time to time, needing to be "reset" (take out the Firewire plug out from the back of the damn thing, back on); this happened on two PCs, one with a Texas intstruments Firewire card, another with some unknown Firewire card (to me), and also on a Mac

Echo Audiofire 4 (for 3 months)/ Audiofire 8 (for a few days)
- stable as goddamn rocks; no dropouts, no tomfoolery, no nothing; you'd think they're PCI cards, and stable ones, at that.

None of the above died (as of yet).

First post, Romanian slut.

Mihai Toma

[s-cube]

RME Fireface 400 on PC here.

1. It has always worked pretty much flawlessly


Used M-audio Firewire Audiophile in the past, which was crap.

Also used to have a Presonus Firebox, which was reliable but the mic preamp wasn't that great.

[nvlowden]

I'm currently using the Saffire (not the LE but the white one) and it does lose connection every now and then....as in, i keep it on all the time and it probably needs to be reset a couple times a week. Not too bad. I'm also using it with a laptop that has some unknown firewire chipset that i am sure is not a TI.

Other than that I would say that I've been very pleased with it and I really like the DSP.

[idrinkalot]

worked with a motu 896hd, yamaha i88x, and some echo firewire. motu was a little funny sometimes (on a mac, lost its connection and routing), yamaha and echo's were solid as a rock. the i88x was probably my favorite, although its mlan mixer/router has a bit of a learning curve. motu was the most fun to use.. probably because of the meters and it looks like you could run it over with a truck.

[Almy]

I use an alesis 12 channel firewire mixer. It's always worked flawlessly for me.

[jaguarsg]

RME and MOTU are probably the most solid and best-sounding units mentioned on your list. never tried either on PC, tho. MOTU's drivers are definitely more suited to Macs.

i know quite a few people who run Digi 001s and 002s on PC and they love it.

[jbjoubaud]

What jaguarsg said... Take Motu and RME off your equation they are probably the most reliable.
I never had any problem with the 828mkII (used it 2 1/2 years), the FF400 (6 months) and the FF800 (1 year)

I used them on mac though

[minus-sounds.com]

At a friend's system I have used a M-Audio 410. Three years ago the drivers were awful. The unit was almost unusable. Constant drop outs, disconnects and the like.
The last two years it's is ok with my occasional use but I haven't stress it to see if it is up to the task.
Personally, for 3 years I had a RME Multiface with both PCMCIA and PCI cards. Sold it 1.5 years ago for a Fireface800. I use Lacie PCMCIA and PCI firewire 800 cards (TI chipset) and it has been flawless from day one. I have used VIA chipset firewire 400 cards with success too.

[island-dave]

I've got to second the above post about the M-Audio FW410. I was REALLY disappointed with this thing, pops, drop-outs, can't plug it in while your computer is running (or risk ruining your FW buss). Also, some of the knobs were flaky, I had to spin the headphone volume know around about 5 times to get it loud enough to hear anything (and no, i'm not deaf).
I really wanted to like this unit; it's FW powered, so I didn't need a wall-wart, it's got plenty of outs for any kind of crazy routing that I might need for a video project or other unique set up, and it feels like it's pretty well built. But with all it's quirks I just couldn't trust it. It got to the point where I was literately afraid to use it because i didn't want to cook my powerbook's internal FW, if i had a desktop mac or pc with a pci firewire card in it, I might try it again. but if I did have something with PCI card slot, I'd probably just get the delta 10/10 which works like a champ on a friends's pc.

The most stable FW interface I've used is on my Mackie Onyx mixer. someone on GS mentioned that the FW card in the mixer is actually made by Echo, so that would explain why it's a pretty good unit. I know I've never had a problem with it - and now that I'm transitioning to Logic Studio from Pro Tools, I'm hoping to get a lot more use out of it.

Hope this helps.

[majortom]

RME FF400 and FF800 worked perfectly 99.9% of the time for me. Occasional clicks if I pushed the system too hard with too many tracks or plugins, but that can be attributed to other bottlenecks (i.e. processor, disk, PCI bus contention). I have a TI firewire chipset that I use it on mostly, but it's worked fine with other cards as well.

[karmil]

M-audio Fw410, absolutely the worst sounding and least reliable audio card i have ever used - on pc and on mac. Apogee ensemble, so far, (6 months or so) not 1 single dropout, problem or annoyance... you get what you pay for in my experience....

[celticrogues]

M-Audio FW 1814 (BLA mod):
1. It has always worked pretty much flawlessly

M-Audio FW410:
2. It works OK, but you've had issues with drivers, dropouts, glitches, instability etc.

Cheers!
-Mike

[redddog]

I've had the Audiofire 12 for over a year without a single issue ever. I've never heard a click or pop and I've never lost a connection.

It could not be anymore reliable (knockon wood). Oh and it sounds amazing.

[kpaw]

My MOTU 828mkii blew up, was sent back, and four weeks later finally had it returned to me. That is the only problem in a year with the unit. My friend's MOTU's with the Black Lion upgrade does sound better though.

[cornutt]

Been using a Mk I 828 for several years, with two different Macs. No problems.

[Allesmachine]

I've used a Saffire (white one with DSP) and the Saffire Pro 10. Given the problems we had with the first one (drop outs, clicks, horrible mic pres, non-functionality with phantom power) I have no idea how I wound up with another. The Pro 10 has had similar issues. I'm using a laptop with unknown firewire chipset though.

I just want to be rid of the whole thing. Crappy software mixer.

[eh91311]

If your Firepod is out of warranty, Presonus will repair it for about $80-85 or so. While you're deciding, send it in for repair. You'll get it back in 4-5 weeks or so, if things go well.

Best thing about the Presonus FW interfaces is that their drivers will work on just about any kind of PC CPU/motherboard hardware combo, unlike most others.

I liked my Firepod but I had trouble with the firewire connections failing and in getting 2 units to sync. I could never decide if the Firepod sounded clean and clinically accurate or actually bright, thin-sounding and bass-shy. I wish Presonus could improve on the Q.C., but their repair customer service is great.

I'm currently using a BLA-modded Digi 001 (PCI) and 002R (FW). Tracks sound natural and smooth, probably less accurate than the more-modern Presonus converter designs but I prefer the BLA 001 and 002. Whatever BLA does to them, it works.

[ipressrecord]

I have a Black Lion Audio modded 828mk2 (clock and analog mod from 2006) which is rock solid, as well as an Apogee Duet that is also rock solid. I've been using the 828mk2 since 2003, and the Duet since last December. I actually sold a stock 828mk2 for the Duet and use it for most of my day to day audio work.

Jeff

[bulls hit]

Guys, thanks so much. This is really good info.

So far it looks like RME and Echo are the leaders of the quality pack and M-Audio are bringing up the rear. Tascam don't appear to have much of the FW market.

Here's the breakdown so far (1 is great, 3 is crap):

Alesis 1
Echo 1 1 1 1
Focusrite 2 2 2 2
M-Audio 2 2 2 2 1 2
Mackie 1
MOTU 2 1 1 3 1 1
Presonus 1 2 3
RME 1 1 1 1 1
Tascam

[studiojunkie]

I recently got an Alesis io14 Firewire interface and so far i'm very pleased and have no complaints. The io14 has four mic inputs but its bigger brother the io26 has eight mic inputs and might be worth checking out. iO|26 Both are very reasonably priced and are expandable via ADAT.

[NS10Fan]

I'll speak up for Tascam. I have a fw-1082, and the A/D end seems pretty solid to me. I can't say I use it for hours on end every day, but it gets a decent amount of use for me to comment on reliability.

They make a rack version...i think the fw-1084, so you might check that out, if all you're looking for is the interface.

[camerondye]

I had a Mackie Satellite for a little while and it worked great for me I just needed more inputs. So the satellite worked great for me.

I then got a FF800 and it has so many options that just work fantastic.
cam

[Drumminkiger]

I gotta say my Digi 002 is pretty solid on my PC. I leave it on pretty much 24/7 and i dont have any issues, though i do reboot when im about to do some work. the strangest thing i had was one of my main outputs distorting, but it turned out to be the power source i had it plugged into so it was easily fixed by plugging it into a power conditioner.

[junior]

+1 for the Yamaha, RME and Echo boxes I've used.

[Thijsemans]

I have a Focusrite Saffire Pro 26i/o and never had any trouble with it. No clicks, beeps or drop outs. I am using it with a Dawicontrol DC-1394 PCI firewire card (TI chipset).

[ScottyD]

Presonus Firestudio Project on PC running Reaper.

Rock solid, no problems.

-ScottyD

[blue monk]

RME get a lot of praise for excellent drivers. I never heard anything bad.

[blarg]

I had An M-Audio Firewire solo that I got used at a pawn shop. It had no problems for a year then it croaked. Built to break?

[opium89]

This is an easy one....M-Audio is by far the worst, I'm personally two for two..Bought two different units and couldn't get either one to work with Windows. I have had a few Echo units that have worked flawlessy and just recently acquired a FF800 due to outstanding reviews. Have yet to try it so I'll save any comments there for a later time.