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Presonus Firebox????

post #1 of 7
4/19/07 at 10:32pm
Thread Starter 
I know there is a lot of enthusiasm for the Central Station. How 'bout the Firebox? Does it have the same DAC and Headamp? Is it similar in quality or inferior? Anyone have any experience they care to share?
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post #2 of 7
4/19/07 at 10:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by senns&nonsense View Post
I know there is a lot of enthusiasm for the Central Station. How 'bout the Firebox? Does it have the same DAC and Headamp? Is it similar in quality or inferior? Anyone have any experience they care to share?
for our purposes, it serves as a great dac but i cannot comment on the headamp or even if it has one. my sound engineer has one that he has loved but wants to upgrade to something a little more professional. we listened to it serving a speaker amp and i am quite impressed with it. ill get more impressions probably next week as we are having a nice but not great headphone and nice but not great speaker meet!
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post #3 of 7
6/16/07 at 8:41pm
bump

I own one, and think it sounds great. Especially since with a mac all you have to do is plug it in and it works flawlessly.

But I would be interested in info/comparisons to the central station and others...
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post #4 of 7
6/17/07 at 10:49am
I'm REALLY curious about this, because I actually owned a firebox at one point, but really had no idea about its functions other than using it to record mic's into my computer.

At the time I was doing alot of recording stuff, but had no interest in high end audio stuff. I didn't even know what a DAC was. So when I started seeing threads around here on the presonus central station, it got me curious, if my firebox was similar to the central station.

Can anybody provide anymore information. Is the DAC in the firebox similar to the central station?

I remember the headphone output on the firebox sounded a little different than on my powerbook, but I never really thought much of it. Also, I was using cheap headphones.
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post #5 of 7
6/19/07 at 1:22pm
Wow. No one has used the firebox? Very strange.

Well, if someone wants to loan me their Central Station, I'll do a comparison between the two!
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post #6 of 7
6/19/07 at 7:25pm
Computers as Source Components Forum???

I have a Firebox. I haven't done serious quality evaluations from the headphone amp, and frankly I don't have any high end phones so I can't quite help you with that. I don't ever mix with headphones, I use monitors. I do know that the HP amp is ridiculously powerful. I have to keep the level very very low with my low-z headphones, it almost feels like I'd blow them up if I turned it past 12 o'clock. I don't feel like trying it... It will have no trouble driving your high end phones.

The AD/DA converters are respectable. I would rate them as pretty good for a hobbyist and excellent for the money. All the line-outs are balanced so they will mate nicely to hi-end amps. This is probably what you'd want to do if you're using this as an audio hi-fi box.
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post #7 of 7
9/26/10 at 1:20am

I have both the Firebox and the 0404 USB, and I have used both as recording interfaces and headphone amplifiers at different points.

 

The 0404 was okay with SR-80s when I hadn't ever heard anything else.  It was pretty good actually, for what it was.  I also drove the se530 with the 0404, which also sounded good at the time.  I have not used the 0404 in any capacity in a while now.

 

The Firebox has an amp that is so powerful even with the DT880/600 I do not turn the volume up halfway.  I wonder what kind of impedance the amp is designed for?  I use the DT880/600 as a monitor to listen to my recordings and when laying down overdub tracks.  The Firebox is very, very powerful and with my Denon D2000 it still almost not out of the channel imbalance range and too loud.

 

That is the only drawback as I see it.  Not a good amp for IEMs either.

 

The sound quality is good with the Beyers, and right now my preferred amp with them over a D10, which cannot power the DT880/600 beyond a wisper, and my RSA Predator, which is okay at low sound levels but still lacks the authority of the Firebox and floods with bass in most Reggae or Hip-Hop.

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