Has anyone compared the various firewire interfaces, like the Presonus uni, versus MOTU, Metric Halo, and RME? I'm mostly interested in sound quality over features although mic preamps are a plus.

Chris

i tried out the rme fireface, mh 2882, motu 828mkII, m-audio fw410 and a few others. i ended up buying the fireface and i'm very happy with it. the 2882 would be my second choice, though.

imo, the others were cool but not in the same league as the rme and mh. hope this helps...

Same here.

I worked with the Motu 828, Motu 896 and RME Fireface.

Although the drivers are better on the MOTUs and more stable, the Fireface has the best sound quality.

Yeah, as I can tell the only negative to the MH is the lack of PC support. The RME is definately at the top of my list. Lack of fine control for the mic preamps top of gain range is a negative but it seems they have resolved the driver spport issues.
Chris

I've got the Presonus Firepod...works very well...sounds anywhere from real good to wonderful (no....its not a Prism...but it gets the job done)

Pres are much better than I expected, stupidly easy to use...my only big gripe in the lack of ADAT IO....of the little gripes, the beta version to allow multiple Firepods daisy chained is limited (for now) to 48K...

K

i agree, the lack of a windows driver was a big minus for me. i would have had to buy an adat pci card to be able to use it with both of my computers. plus, the lack of knobs on the front panel didn't thrill me... other than that, it's a pretty nice box heh

Ouch, I missed the lack of ADAT. I do do 16 ch occassionally using a Behringer ADA8000. I'm trying to replace an aging Echo Laya24 with a front end of better converters and have a few mic preamps for the low budget projects.

Chris

Fireface working fabulously here, I've totally fallen in love with this thing, its sound and operation as well as the uber-powerful/flexible Totalmix and Matrix applications. About the difficulty in fine-tuning the input gain, a look at the loopback feature and judicious use of the shift key on the input fader might help...but don't quote me on that!

I have a Fireface as well. Very good sound for the money and excellent features made this the clear winner to me.

digi 002, digi 002
pro tools, pro tools, pro tools

NO, don't say it three times!!! It'll appear out of nowhere and attack!

All this talk about the fireface is making me excited. Its going to be my next big gear purchase, when I find one at a good price.

Just out of curiosity, what software are you guys using it with?

Running Logic Pro 7.1 with it.

Go for Fireface also here! I try it with motu traveler and Echo, and I have no doubt is the best. I'm working with DP 4.6
Luca

also got the fireface after selling my motu 828MkII

the things drivers for the PC did'nt do it for me

Another vote for the fireface!!!

The drivers are rock solid and the sound is great (specially with a nice preamp)

Gear:
Fireface 800
Lucid SSG192 clock
Millennia Media Quad preamp
Sytek MPX-4ii preamp
Emachines Athlon 64 laptop
Samplitude v.8

Another vote for the Fireface. Working Flawlessly. Needless to say it is a huge improvement over my poor deceased Aardvark.

My FF just arrived today! I havent gotten to use it yet, but Im quite excited. I cant wait to bid goodbye to the 001/

I am still concerned about the usability of the mic preamps. This is potentially a big bonus for me but their lack of stepped contols and repeatabilty makes my classical stereo recording a challenge.

I am strongly tempted to spend a load more and pick up the Mytek 8x192 with the firewire card. It's a lot of dough ($3495 plus the card) and doesn't have mic pre's. I know the product will sound spectacular based aroudn what I hear from the 8x96 and Stereo96 units. I end up in a totally different price category with it.

Thoughts?

On the fireface, I dont see any monitor outs on the back. What am I missing here? Im used to the digi002r, on the back there is a main outs and monitor outs. I dont see that on the FireFace. Sorry for my ignorance if its obvious answer.


Thanks
Eddie

Just use 1&2, or any other pair you like. You've plenty of routing options with the TotalMix software.