Don't lump Echo in with that lot. For sound quality, perhaps they're about the same (all Audiofires now have updated converters, though), but for driver quality they excel over Presonus, MOTU, EMU, M-Audio and other budget-end interfaces.SubFunk wrote: i partly agree, motu makes good cards... but yes there is motu, presonus, echo and the lot and then there is RME and then... benchmark, metric halo, lynx, etc. (i totally agree about the built, we had motus next to other cards in my old company a 828, V4HD and a 8pre to be precise next to RME FF 800 a 400 and one metric halo ULN2 and the motus where the weakest in any respect, especially built, knobs etc.)
Agreed, personally I doubt I'll ever need anything better than a Multiface II because it's Good Enough to get professional results, and it's utterly solid. Yes, you can get better sounding boxes, but you need to pay a lot more. Four words: law of diminishing returns.SubFunk wrote:it is of no question as soon as someone can afford an RME card to get it. full stop. next level above are the ones i mentioned already. everything else is underneath.
But hell, if the FF400 needs it's own FireWire bus then that means I need to pay big bucks for a 17" MBP with an Expresscard slot so I can use an external 7200 RPM drive.
GAFM ***
Might want to check out the threads on the RME forums to see where things stand.