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Saffire LE vs Audiofire4 - some soundcard guidance?
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| novastorm |
Ahoy TA's! I'm in the process of upgrading my studio gear to something a little more serious than my current setup of a Macbook Pro hooked up to Logitech 5.1 speakers via a generic apple firewire 5.1 audio interface. I'll be putting together a quadcore PC and picking up some Yamaha HS80M nearfield monitors as new additions. my room isn't treated or anything crazy like that as yet but its nice and big.
My question is regarding what soundcard to pair with the new PC - my budget is around $300-500 (AUD) and so far I've narrowed it down to a choice between:
-Focusrite Saffire LE
-Echo Audiofire 4
...both of which seem to be decent interfaces for the price point, however I'm open to other suggestions if you guys have any. I'm liking the idea of firewire as I'll be able to switch it between PC and mac (i use predominantly Reason but I also have Logic), however are there any opinions as to whether it's a better idea to have an integrated card? I hear tales of audio interference with PCI which unsettles me.
I produce trance (not that the genre matters overly) using pretty much software only -- I basically just need great sound clarity, a MIDI input, enough jacks to use 5.1, plus the option for rigging up a hardware mixing board and maybe an input mic down the track. What do you guys/gals think, am I on track with my short-list, and if so which way should I lean? They're pretty comparable in price on ebay (definitely will be getting it shipped from US since they're a couple of hundred $$ more in Australia), the Echo Audiofire is marginally more expensive but I do like the idea of the on/off switch to protect the unit.
Thanks in advance, any input muchly appreciated :) |
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| Lucidity |
| I have the original Saffire, no problems here, and the mic pre's sound outstanding considering the price point. If needed for vocals, I can get the latency down to 5ms. |
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| echosystm |
| AudioFire has better ADC/DAC, afaik. The Focusrite probably has better preamps though. |
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