Presonus Firebox > M-Audio Firewire Audiophile

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-- Presonus Firebox > M-Audio Firewire Audiophile

Posted by djbruuen on Nov-09-2005 15:59:

Presonus Firebox > M-Audio Firewire Audiophile

just my little consumer tip

i had owned the m-audio card for about 20days and was not satisfied at all with it. the buttons had plastic covers that could easily fall off, they only had un-balanced outputs (which created a really loud floor noise on my speakers) and the exteral controls would only work 'sometimes' beyond that i found sound quality ok, but nothing spectacular.

i brought the card back just cutting the 30days and decided to go with the firebox...sure it costs a bit more, but this an investment i don't want to be upgrading in the near future, and i always had that in the back of my head as i owned the audiophile firewire. The knobs 'ALWAYS' work (i don't understand why they wouldn't?) and its built 10million times better then the m-audio card. feels like it could be chucked around and still sound good. of course theres the added bonus of having mic and instrument ports with an awesome pre. and can get down to 3-4ms sounding great. and of course it has balanced outputs allowing my monitors to sound like they're off when they're cranked.

just my 2cents incase anyone is looking into firewire cards.

Posted by DJDIRTY on Nov-09-2005 17:13:

Yep. I know what you mean.. My friend picked up a firebox as well. It's pretty good for the price.. The sound quality is pretty good as well. He got a Focusrite saffire, but there was just to many problems with that thing in his setup, and as soon as he got the firebox, it all went away... By playing around and listening to the unit, I can say one thing, If I didn't have my RME, and was in the market for 400 dollar audio interface, I would get myself one of those for sure..

Posted by DigiNut on Nov-09-2005 23:19:

The MOTU 828mkII

*fap fap fap*

Posted by Derivative on Nov-09-2005 23:47:

yea the 828 looks great on paper. but i knew someone in southampton that owned one and i have mixed opinions on it. the power supply runs very very hot. scarily hot. the buttons on the front panel are too close together making it fiddly to use sometimes. my friend actually had his replaced because he fried the first one and motu only offer a 3 months guarantee on it. 3 months! i mean they cant even guarantee that it will hold out till the end of the season! they also have a dubious replacement unit scheme and their PC tech support is totally non existant. on top of that, it costs a pretty buck and ive heard alot of 828 horror stories since then.

my advice on that one - get a second opinion

Posted by DigiNut on Nov-09-2005 23:54:

quote:
Originally posted by Derivative
yea the 828 looks great on paper. but i knew someone in southampton that owned one and i have mixed opinions on it. the power supply runs very very hot. scarily hot. the buttons on the front panel are too close together making it fiddly to use sometimes. my friend actually had his replaced because he fried the first one and motu only offer a 3 months guarantee on it. 3 months! i mean they cant even guarantee that it will hold out till the end of the season! they also have a dubious replacement unit scheme and their PC tech support is totally non existant. on top of that, it costs a pretty buck and ive heard alot of 828 horror stories since then.

my advice on that one - get a second opinion

Really, I'm actually surprised to hear that because I read literally dozens of reviews which were all glowing except for a few negative comments about their tech support. None from anybody I know, though, so I'm glad you brought it up.

Do you think this is a problem with all MOTU products? What about the 896HD, or the 2408mk3? Those are a little more expensive, but if the 828 has all the problems you mention, they might be worth the extra money.

Posted by Derivative on Nov-09-2005 23:57:

see thats the thing. i dont know

it may have been a one off. i thought maybe it was but apparantly other users have gotten many of the same problems. thats when i started to think.

but it could be anything. faulty batch for instance. i do know that many people own them and have had no problems. but i was really skeptical when i fiddled with it. i mean, the power supply runs hot enough to scald your hand. jesus christ...

Posted by djbruuen on Nov-10-2005 00:53:

speaking of that...another point to chalk up for presonus is their tech support is one of the best i've come across...m-audio would respond to emails, but didn't take a lot of effort keeping them brief and trying to avert my questions to companies of other products i'm using...the motu looks fine, i'm sure that runs a pretty penny though, and its irrelevent for me cause i'm not in need of all those inputs.

Posted by DigiNut on Nov-10-2005 01:13:

quote:
Originally posted by Derivative
see thats the thing. i dont know

it may have been a one off. i thought maybe it was but apparantly other users have gotten many of the same problems. thats when i started to think.

but it could be anything. faulty batch for instance. i do know that many people own them and have had no problems. but i was really skeptical when i fiddled with it. i mean, the power supply runs hot enough to scald your hand. jesus christ...

What about the other MOTU products I mentioned, are you aware of anyone who has had problems with them (or even anyone who owns them)?

That doesn't really sound so bad about the power supply - most high-end studio equipment runs pretty damn hot. You just have to look at the specs and see what the operating temperature is.