Any experience with Presonus products?

[Punky921]

I'm thinking of picking up the Presounus AudioBox 1818VSL as the new "brain" of my audio production rig, retiring my Audio 8 DJ from that role (I need more mic inputs). Seems like a sweet deal for $500, and the folks at Sweetwater had nothing but nice things to say about Presonus. But those dudes are trying to sell me stuff so I'm curious what you guys think of Presonus products. Worth the cash? Which brands are better? Which are worse?

Thanks in advance for your input!

[chapelier fou]

i use a Presonus FP10 for 3 years now, and i havn't got a single problem with it.
The preamps are really worth the cash. Decent latency.
I am using very intensively : recorded a few albums with it and made 200 gigs with no problem (except one rack ear broken) .
Unless when i had a windows vista computer for a while.

[Punky921]

What kind of latency are you getting?

[m.o]

I have a Presonus Firestudio Mobile.
1. If you're using it with a PC check which firewire controller chipset you have against the list of 'working' chipsets (there is a list on their website), I had one that should've worked but it didn't dropped connection intermittenly.
Got a new FW PCI card for $15 fixed that.

2. I get spikes on my SPDIF in channel, at least while it's not connected to anything, I hear this occurs with the Firestudio Mobile and Project on some mfr batches, apparently they will accept it on warranty and fix it if you send it in.

Other than that my mobile is an excelent little thing.

[gjm]

FireStudio Mobile and HP4. Both have been fundamentally reliable and posed no barriers for what I do. I did though have to replace a wall wart, due to constant traveling and therefore packing gear in bags. The 'tail' that comes out of the wall wart is very stiff, and the wire that comes out of the 'tail' is very flexible, its the perfect place for constant bending and breakage.

[Punky921]

The interface I'm considering is actually a USB interface, because while I have a good Rain Recording firewire card, I don't really want to mess with firewire.

[nuxnamon]

i have a presonus micpre and its sounds great. lots of gain, low noise, and has plenty of tube flavor when pushed. when i thought i had problems with it and was trouble shooting, the customer service was actually very helpful.. they answered fairly quickly and answered all of my questions.. when the tech didn't know the answer, he contacted the engineering department instead pretending he knew what he was talking about..

[Punky921]

Good technical support is always a plus. I think I'm going to get it from Sweetwater, as every product they sell gets a free two year warranty and lifetime tech support.

[Fizmarble]

I have both a firepod and a firebox. My firebox is now dead, and my firepod has died once and required sending it in to get it fixed for 100 dollars. So my experience is 2 products and two deaths. They are a few years old, and I don't expect them to run forever, but I do expect them to last longer than 3-4 years, solid state devices that they are. And while they are not the most expensive products, they aren't the cheapest either. Build quality on the two that I own are questionable. Crappy knobs for adjusting input level and master output. If I were buying new, I would look elsewhere, but that's from my experience. Just weighing in. Good luck with your purchase.

[Punky921]

Thanks for the input. What went wrong with your devices?

[Fizmarble]

Normal use=Fail. My Firebox was purchased originally as a factory refurbished item, it arrived DOA. I exchanged it for another refurb (stupid me, trying to save money), and it was also DOA (I think it was actually the same one, stupid Musician's Friend). I received a refund and purchased the more expensive "new" firebox. It worked! It lasted me a good couple of years before the volume knob started to become unresponsive. I would turn the knob up, and the volume would not increase and then some threshold would be reached and the volume would go painfully loud, and then flicker between insanely loud and too quiet, and I would have to continue rolling the knob back and forth to get it to a usable level. Towards the end of it's life, the volume knob when set to minimum still had sound too audible for recording vocals. They would bleed out of the monitors right back into the mic.

The firepod went for years before one day staring at me with the red eye of doom. It required a factory fix. I paid for it, so I still have a working firepod. My firebox is worthless. I have not looked into repairing it. I don't want to give presonus any more money. I am thinking when the firepod goes again, I will switch to RME.

[Fizmarble]

Oh, and their support was crap. I wanted to check on the status of my Firepod fix after a week and a half, and their "automated support ticket system" denied that I had a ticket even processing. I messaged them through their system as well and could get no information. Several days later it arrived. I honestly didn't know if they were even going to send it back after charging my credit card.

[Punky921]

Sounds rough. Sorry to hear you had such a bad time with it.

[Fizmarble]

Yeah, thanks. It's a bummer because I really wanted to like Presonus. I like the features of their interfaces and their price isn't punishing like some other manufacturers, but then, I guess that translates to quality at some point.

[Punky921]

Yeah. I can't justify the cost of an RME though. Also, I don't really use firewire. I'm trying to move away from that interface since I no longer have a powerful Mac.