Does Focusrite Saffire suck or something?

[Scottn]

I have the Pro 40. It's been working fine

[Enlightened Hand]

You can ascertain exactly nothing of profound, substantial value about the in use, over time quality of a piece by looking online at ebay auctions or the reviews on various gear related sites. You can also not draw any useful conclusions by comparison to the Onyx Blackbird. Only real world usage will tell you if there is a major downside.

I have not heard of any serious issues with the Focusrite stuff. But I think that if you're concerned about quality and reliability being an issue in the future then perhaps it's best to simply budget for a piece that is more unquestionably "high quality".

[eldopa]

Originally Posted by Enlightened Hand

You can ascertain exactly nothing of profound, substantial value about the in use, over time quality of a piece by looking online at ebay auctions or the reviews on various gear related sites. You can also not draw any useful conclusions by comparison to the Onyx Blackbird. Only real world usage will tell you if there is a major downside.

I have not heard of any serious issues with the Focusrite stuff. But I think that if you're concerned about quality and reliability being an issue in the future then perhaps it's best to simply budget for a piece that is more unquestionably "high quality".

Well, I do not agree with this. My opinion is that sought after gear is hard to find on Ebay (or found but few in number) or, the not sought after very high in number. Again, this is MY opinion. As for future use...that is not a question I am seeking an answer....at this time.

Of course this can change with newer or updated items. In this case though, it's the current line. Though I do not agree that this means nothing, I do appreciate your point. If I felt the only answer is they suck....I would not have posted my question. So what the heck am I saying????? I am 50/50 lol
Thanks for the response. Anyone else? What am I missing? Is everyone happy with the Saffire series? Are so many selling them because they are looking to dummy down? It was more than needed?? What gives? Like I said, looks like people are holding on to their Blackbirds (I only mention this as I thought of the Saffire 40 over the 24 - but the 24 DSP looks great to me)

Keep 'em coming. Really looking to see how many are happy/unhappy with their Saffire.

[eldopa]

Originally Posted by Scottn

I have the Pro 40. It's been working fine

Thanks

[Cookie]

saffire 56 user here. Actually is better than expected IMO. Pre's sound pretty darn good. Great unit! No bands have complained yet!

[Travst]

I've been very happy with my Pro 24 that I've been using for the last 18 months. I think that you would have to factor in the number of units sold to be able to compare the number of sales on Ebay for both units.

[adc004]

I have an older one... the 26i/o. It's not bad... it wasn't very reliable in the beginning (pops, clicks, suddenly losing communication), but a firmware update fixed that. Now it's very reliable, which is probably the most important thing when dealing with these interfaces.

[eldopa]

Originally Posted by Travst

I've been very happy with my Pro 24 that I've been using for the last 18 months. I think that you would have to factor in the number of units sold to be able to compare the number of sales on Ebay for both units.

Very good point.

Also, have noticed not too many 56's. So maybe...the 14 user wants a 24, the 24 wants a 40 and the 40 wants a 56??? Maybe they are so awesome that everyone upgrades???? Good point on units sold though.

[ears2thesky]

I got my '56 off of ebay 2 years ago: b-stock for $750. Still works great.

[eldopa]

So it must be the great point from above...quantity sold.
Does ANYONE have anything bad to say about these? And since I am asking...anything bad about the Saffire Pro 24 DSP??

Thanks all,

[work2do]

Originally Posted by eldopa

Seeing so many used Saffire 24's and 40's for sale I thought hmm....does everyone buy them, hate them and, sell them off?

What's the deal? What does everyone think, is there some big downside to the Saffire series?

They are very specific about the firewire chip used in your desktop or laptop. You are good if you are on mac but if you have a pc with a non TI firewire chip it will cause issues. For some reason most pc's and pc laptops don't come with the TI chipset. You will find someone on a forum saying they got by without the TI but those are far and few between and are very lucky.

[Dpro]

I had a Focusrite Saffire LE which was considered to be pretty damn good. Used it for several years. Moved to a Mackie Oynx 820i got it for dirt cheap. Same pres and converters as the Blackbird except it(820i) was only 8 in 2 out.
I felt the Mackie had an edge on the Saffire. The Mackie's AD is great, the DA is actually a little on the bright side which leads me to believe its not as accurate. I am in the process of moving into something better. I can honestly say though you can turn out great sounding music with either unit. Though as and audio engineer geek I am always striving for better equipment. LOL

YMMV

[icecubeman]

Saffire 40, 26 and 56 here, working great

[tarbari]

Originally Posted by eldopa

So it must be the great point from above...quantity sold.
Does ANYONE have anything bad to say about these? And since I am asking...anything bad about the Saffire Pro 24 DSP??

Thanks all,

I own a Pro 40 which for some reason does not always start up properly. Power and Firewire LEDs light up like they should and my mbp recognizes the unit properly but it doesn't pass audio at all. Problem solves itself when I restart the unit.

Otherwise the Pro 40 has not failed me once. No pops or clicks or audio dropouts during tracking, mixing or while listening music.

Unfortunately I got nothing to say about the Pro 24.

[psycho_monkey]

Originally Posted by eldopa

So it must be the great point from above...quantity sold.
Does ANYONE have anything bad to say about these? And since I am asking...anything bad about the Saffire Pro 24 DSP??

Thanks all,

Originally Posted by work2do

They are very specific about the firewire chip used in your desktop or laptop. You are good if you are on mac but if you have a pc with a non TI firewire chip it will cause issues. For some reason most pc's and pc laptops don't come with the TI chipset. You will find someone on a forum saying they got by without the TI but those are far and few between and are very lucky.

I have pro 24 (non dsp) for my home rig. works fine - i'm not exactly taxing it, but no issues with drivers or anything.

Before that I had a mackie blackjack, mainly as a headphone amp. Again - worked and sounded fine, I just needed more features.

[ExNihilo]

I have a 24 DSP. Works great and the VRM is a very usefull gadget.

[dubmunkey]

Originally Posted by eldopa

Hello All,
I have been thinking of getting the Focusrite Saffire 24 DSP.
I have read reviews of issues...and reviews that it is great. More than I want to spend but, I see the Mackie Blackbird gets great reviews.

After weeks of watching on Ebay, I see there is always a ton of Saffire 24's and 40's for sale. At the same time, I hardly see any Blackbirds for sale...if any.

Seeing so many used Saffire 24's and 40's for sale I thought hmm....does everyone buy them, hate them and, sell them off?

What's the deal? What does everyone think, is there some big downside to the Saffire series?

Thank you for any help.

Or something the mackie was never even a consideration when buying my 56

[Kamurah]

Another Saffire Pro 24 DSP user here. A very capable unit that sounds great.

Captured several recordings with the built-in preamps that are some of the cleanest and most detailed I have done.

IMO for the money it is very hard to beat. Especially considering you get VRM, SPDIF and ADAT inputs, bus power, and two headphone outs.

[Travst]

I've been pleasantly surprised by the scalability of my unit. When I bought my Saffire 24 Pro, I was using the monitor outs and the inputs only. Now I have a small chain of outboard gear attached as well as an ADA8000 that provides more line ins for my synths via ADAT. I keep thinking that I'll have to upgrade to another box, but the Saffire keeps on providing good results and now I'm attached to it and MixControl. In fact, I will probably add some individual pres next and upgrade mics before replacing the Saffire.

[dgafinbob]

I have the macke blackjack. It worked really well but after a couple weeks I decided to move up because of lack of features. The pres were pretty decent sounding.. You can tell definetly not the best but you can also tell definetly not the worst and far from it.

[humpo72]

I have been using my pro 24 without issue for a couple of years now. Great audio interface.

[fistikuffs]

Pro 24 user here (non DSP) for the last few months. I think they are an excellent unit especially for the price but as mentioned above, make sure you've got the right firewire set-up if your using windows, i don't and it causes me some hassle.

Still, the pre's are excellent, great routing/monitoring options and I really like mix control.

[tsutek]

I've been using the first Saffire unit that came out, and still use it daily. Is the latency as problematic with the new Saffires as it was/is with the older models? If I need to use a lot of outputs, I almost always have to up the latency to 1024 samples, a constant bummer.. With a single 1in/1out config, I can get 64 samples without problems.

Sound quality is probably very decent considering the price..

[Shaolin]

I had a Saffire 40 for location work. It worked flawlessly. My problem was that compared to my main rig converters (Lynx at the time), the DA sucked so bad I couldn't even asses the pre's or AD properly. (And that was when I had it connected back into the big rig).

For location tracking I suppose it was ok, but there was no way I could have done a mix on the thing. I mention it because if you are used to something a bit better or if you aspire to something better you'll notice the limitations a lot, at least the DA.

[DistortingJack]

I sell the things. Focusrite's unit sales are dozens of times superior to Mackie's.
They are also the most recommended, and a lot of newbies who have no idea what they're doing buy them. I'd expect to see lots of them for sale for that reason alone.

[SabreChris]

Pump and dump.

[CPCompany]

I have a Saffire Pro 14 and have no issues whatsoever. I admit that I have fairly limited knowledge though and haven't pushed it anywhere nar to it's limits to have had any real problems.

I wish it had 2 audio ins so I could hook up both synths mind.

[memoryshell]

[memoryshell]

I've been looking at the LS56 as a possible choice of interface.

Earlier today, I went to a music shop to check out a drum kit. They had a few saffire 24's in stock, though not the LS56. The owner let me take a look at one of the units, and I gotta say I was quite impressed by the build quality.

Its made of plastic, but still seems quite chunky and solid. It made me want the LS56 more. Not sure I could say the same about the build quality of my other choices, the motu 828 mk3 units, though to be fair, Ive never seen one so its impossible to judge.

But I was not expecting what I saw from the saffire, and while appearances can be deceptive, it did leave a very good impression.