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

[lepetitmartien]

More expensive but balanced you have the Metric Halo Mobile I/O…

828 is cool

Also check the Tascam 1884 and Yamaha 01x, there a lot going in these too (mixers and control surface, effects) and they have already positive reviews here even if the drivers of the Tascam are still not full featured. I'm lazy so I don't have looked again how they handle balanced signal… do your homework

[swilder]

Presto

Anytime you see RCA style connectors, they are unbalanced.

To have a balanced connection, you either have an XLR mic connector, or a tip/ring/sleeve style connetor (think headphones). If a cable only has a tip and a sleeve (think guitar cable) then it is unbalanced.

Hope this helps

Scott

[Presto]

Have a look at what I quoted. I thought they did say XLR. I'd better go back to school or buy some new glasses.

Ah I added the bit including XLR after (edit). You must have missed it.

Anyway, nice advice from you Scott.

Finally looked at the Egosystems site. The Quatafire does have two combo XLRs on the front. There's a pic

Ce message a été modifié par Presto - lun. 15 déc. 2003, 02:22.