[Currawong]

I'm thinking of getting an M-Audio Firewire Solo specifically for its coax out, so I can use it instead of optical from my MacBook Pro and still retain 24/96 output, without having to use USB.

I don't have any complaints about my current set-up. The optical cable I use, compared with USB output, seems to be marginally better with at least DAC I tried.

What I'm interested in are people's thoughts on similar FW interfaces. Are they worth getting? Can you daisy-chain two to output to two DACs at the same time? Are there other brands or devices I should consider for better results? Do more expensive models result in better audio with less jitter or whatever?

 

[John Willett]

I have the RME Fireface 400 - this can be bus powered if your computer has a 6-pin firewire socket (like my Samsung X-50).

The Prism Orpheus is about the best - but about x4 the price of the Fireface 400 (this is the one I drool over

).

I hope this helps.

 

[Currawong]

Thanks for that John. The RME is appealing, if way over the budget I was looking at. Have you, or anyone you know, heard differences between cheaper Firewire audio boxes and the RME and better with high-end external DACs? I'm wondering, for example, if I bought one of these, if it would noticeably improve the performance of a good DAC.

 

[emmodad]

also noteworthy is that the FF400 is one of very few devices which will reliably function as a Firewire <> SPDIF interface for up to and including 24/192; it was (and most possibly still is) the least-expensive option to do so.

see ie http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f7/pan...7/#post4016795 and search on "24/192 + fireface" on head-fi, stevehoffman forums, computeraudiophile, gearslutz, etc....

 

[Ham Sandwich]

A concern with FireWire on the Mac notebooks is that Apple has been taking the FireWire ports off of their notebooks except for the MacBook Pro. You're taking a gamble that sometime in the (near) future that Apple isn't going to remove the FireWire ports from the MacBook Pro and then you'll be left with a FireWire audio interface that can't plug into a Mac.

I use an M-Audio FW-410 firewire interface. I got it a bunch of years ago. At the time the USB interfaces didn't reliably support 24/96 and above. FireWire was the way to go if you wanted to try higher sampling rates. It works. It has professional level ASIO drivers. I use it with Windows.

I have never compared it directly to a USB interface. I can't comment of comparative sound quality.

 

[pinkpanther]

I would steer clear of the firewire solo. I just got rid mine. Frankly, the drivers plain suck. Go with an apogee duet for the extra bucks...

 

[Currawong]

pinkpanther: I've heard the Solo had poor drivers. What I'm interested now is in something with S/PDIF out to connect to a considerably better DAC than the Duet (which I've already owned). Unfortunately the Duet doesn't have that kind of output, otherwise I would have kept it.