Okay so I'm going to get one of the M-Audio External Soundcards, but I don't know if I should go with USB or FireWire... From what I've read FireWire is better.

I never really understood the difference between FireWire and USB.

They're priced about the same, which one should I go with?

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Most people prefer firewire over USB for sound because of the latency issues associated with USB 1.0. There is a `faster' version of USB called USB 2.0, but it will only work at that speed if your computer AND the device support it....so you could still wind up the old latency issues if your PC doesn't have USB 2.0 ports.

My computer does support USB 2.0

Basically from what you're saying, and what I'm hearing elsewhere, if there's no specific reason to go with USB, then I should go with FireWire, correct?

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quote:

Originally posted by RoBDaWG My computer does support USB 2.0 Basically from what you're saying, and what I'm hearing elsewhere, if there's no specific reason to go with USB, then I should go with FireWire, correct?

Firewire 800 is faster than USB 2.0, so if the soundcard and computer are both FW 800, no question, go with the Firewire.

It also might be called IEEE 1394b.

[edit]

It won't be called 1394a or 13xx or anything other than 1394b, those are slower.



Your signature is friggin awesome btw.

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I don't think that USB card supports USB2... at least not when I was considering it. I got the firewire which is 1394a by the way.

I got it cos its faster than USB1. But I'll warn you its not plug and play. If for any reason it looses conection (and believe me, when carrying around with a laptop it happens very easily) you gotta restart the card & and pc; which is really annoying. Other than that its great.

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1394a, according to spec, is slower than USB 2.0, but faster than USB 1.

In actual usage though, the 1394a always performs better on the benchmark than USB. So unless your Firewire is 1394, go with firewire anyway.


So go:
1934b
1934a
USB 2.0
1934
USB 1.1
Serial
Morse Code
Potentiometer

Hope that's helpful.

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Wow such a tough choice... that non plug-n-play issue may steer me away from FireWire now...

Thanks a lot for the info though, that's really informative stuff!

P.S. thanks on the sig comment! Another Johan fan?? Yeaaa!

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Yee yee!

Firewire is supposed to be plug and play. Hopefully that problem has been solved in newer versions of the drivers.

Maybe something as integrated into the system as a soundcard can't be plug and play though. I would imagine that problem would exist for USB as well if it were to be a problem with firewire. Then again, I've been able to uninstall things and reinstall them without restarting, even when the computer couldn't find them.

don_q, you fairly proficient at using the computer? Like using the device manager and all that?


I would still go with the Firewire though. It can perform at almost twice the speed of USB, depending on the situation.

Perhaps check out the m-audio forums, see if anyone else has a solution to the disconnecting problem.

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quote:

Originally posted by djglacial don_q, you fairly proficient at using the computer? Like using the device manager and all that?

yep. I'm a prof. of a Computer Science dept. at a university

when I bought the card it brought the warning in the intructions, in the warranty and in a seperate pink slip. Plus when it disconnects and you open the software it also states the warning: Do not connect the the card! you must restart both blablabla...
it really wasn't something I expected when I purchased and it really bothers me cos my laptop has firewire mini and with that port if you barely move the cable sideways it looses connection. I have tried it with the normal 6 pin firewire via a pccard and it hasn't happened, but again I'm already very careful with moving it around.

Anyway all I needed was midi, 24bits and rca's and for $139 it was really worth it.

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Huh, that sucks...

Well maybe you can tell me why firewire is supposed to be plug and play, but that card isn't???

Clues?

What's the model number anyway?

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i have the usb version,and there's a slight latency problem.
i dont know if this is the same with the firewire card.
most people say you get what you pay for!

quote:

Originally posted by djglacial Huh, that sucks... Well maybe you can tell me why firewire is supposed to be plug and play, but that card isn't??? Clues? What's the model number anyway?

jeje nope sorry. Its gotta be a software issue they probably didn't care for improving. They claim reconnecting while XP is running can damage the pc so they don't let you do it via their software. I haven't worried about overriding.

model number?

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