Echo Mia Or Edirol Ua-5? Options

[iDevGames.com]

Hi, I have a G4 (400MHz) and a Mackie mixer. I plan to run some sequencer and send MIDI out to a keyboard, sampler and sound module. They are all contected to my Mackie mixer which I want to connect to my Mac. I have looked at almost every option, and heard the pros and cons. If I had the budget, perhaps the MOTU 828 would be on my get list. But I have to spend less.

I don't mind recording only 2 channels at a time. So 2 channel in is fine. But I want them to be balanced inputs. I plan to burn CDRs of my music as well as record to an MD, so optical output would also be good.

From what I have seen, Edirol UA-5 meets my goals. For cards, the Echo MIA looks fine but uses a coaxial digital out. So I will need some small adapter there (around $30 or so?) The Echo has balanced inputs.

Like with many products now, both have beta Mac OS X drivers. I feel that latency would be low on the MIA card, and sound would be good. But I feel that audio cards have a hidden danger as new OS updates can often break their drivers. On the other hand, my guess is with USB based products, as long as the maker follows Apple's guidelines, not too much bad vodoo can happen, so the UA-5 gets nods there.

I looked at other USB devices and nothing catches my fancy. Ditto for audio cards.

Last point, I will of course need a MIDI interface (2/2) so I was thinking of getting the Logic model. I think that since Apple owns Logic, their approach to Mac OS X will be a tad better than other companies. And from what I heard, using a sequencer and MIDI interface from the same maker cuts down on headaches.

So, any reason NOT to get either the UA5 or Echo MIA? Price on MIA is lower, though ti doesn't have as much as fancy I/O.

Any advice welcomed.

Cheers

[littlewonder]

Hi everybody,

For those who have a Edirol UA-5,

Does it have a pre-amp?
I mean : is it possible to plug a micro (to sing) or a guitar jack directly in the UA-5, or do we need another (pre-)amp ...

I mix all up when they talk about "48v phantom power for microphones" on the edirol website <here> They do not talk about pre-amp. Is it the same thing?

In a <Sound on sound article>, they talk about "Edirol's UA5 is a stereo USB interface offering mic preamps with phantom power" ...

So, can you please help me to understand all this?

Thanks in advance,
Thomas.