M-audio Fw 410 - Positive Reviews?? Anyone??, FW 410 or MKII....no contest?? Options

[krsboz]

hey-

i'm running Logic on a 1G G4 Powerbook w/ Panther....and it's time to take the next step.

I've read some pretty sketchy stuff all over about the M-Audio Firewire 410....I'm wondering if anyone
out there has anything good to say about it??

I'm leaning towards biting the bullet and picking up the MKII 828 - but I just wanted to know if anyone had any good experiences with the FW410 before I completely empty my wallet.

thanks much,

krs

[JBytes]

You can get some feedback in this thread.

--JBytes

[krsboz]

thanks J....

i appreciate the link - definately good stuff.

(i actually didn't even know about that site - so....even better)

i think i'm gonna keep saving.....828 here i come.

krsboz

[rickenbacker]

Yes, as George Orwell might have put it if they'd had internet forums when he were lad, 828 good, 410 bad.

[boze]

krsboz-

i'm keeping an eye on this puppy. It's the same price as the 410 with more six ins (two 1/4", two xlr which can also go 1/4", and two spdif) and ten outs and 32 channels of midi.

best of all: it's not an m-audio product!

i even like that it's not MOTU because although the 828 is a standard for mobile audio, i've been on the sh!t end of the whole 2408 osx driver debacle and anyway the 828 is bigger than i want to lug to gigs and more i/o than i'll ever need.

go QUATA-fire! (hope drivers don't suck.. anybody have experience with egosys drivers?)

[swilder]

The Egosys doesn't seem to have any balanced inputs or outputs. The inputs are unbalanced RCA and the outputs are rca too, and are those 1/4 inch stereo outputs for outputs 5-8? I think that anyone considering this should re-read topics regarding balanced v. unbalanced connections before making a decision.

Just my 2 cents

Scott

[dixiechicken]

The Motu-828 MK-II, is definitely a good piece of gear very versatile.

Have 828 MK-I my self and I am very satified with it.
(I would have liked to have the cue-mix capabilities from the MK-II.)

The pre-amplifiers in the 828 are quite decent too.
You can use the 828-MK-II as a standalone mixer as well.

Cheers: Dixiechicken

[boze]

swilder, what's at issue then regarding the unballanced inputs? i thought i'd finally found the soundcard for my laptop but now the waters are muddy again or whatever. ::sigh::

[Presto]

Regarding the Quata etc series from egosystems, HarmonyCentral says "The flagship product of the series is the HexaFire ($999.99 US MSRP), a 16-In/16-Out box housed in a 2 rack space unit. The front panel features 8 balanced mic preamps."

They didn't mention balanced for the other two in the series, but maybe they are

Just checked on the sound & music site, and for the Egosystems Wamirack 192X they also say

• 4 Balanced adjustable Line/Mic inputs (XLR Connector)
• 8 Channel Analog Outputs:
• 8 Balanced +4dBu Line Outputs (1/4" TRS Phone)
• 2 Balanced +4dBu Line Outputs (XLR Connector)

so I suppose they do know how to balance.

Still, I believe the quata's not out yet so we'll have to see.

Ce message a été modifié par Presto - lun. 15 déc. 2003, 01:26.

[swilder]

In a word:

Noise

If you going to run wires more than 5 to 10 feet, balanced wires and connectors are a must to keep things quiet.

If you record two or three tracks with a little hum or hiss, it might not be that noticable. But once that track counts gets up a little more, all that extra noise can really ruin a mix. You have to do so much eq and noise reduction, that the whole mix sounds flat at lifeless.

Just my 2 cents

Scott