Presonus Firepod, anyone?

MarkH · Post by **MarkH** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 12:25 am

Looking for a good audio interface for the studio. Still not sure how "strenuous" Firewire is compared to PCI, but the Firepod really looks like a nice firewire interface. Otherwise, I'm looking at the Layla 3G. As much as I'd like to get an RME Hammerfall, seems like a lot of overhead by the time you add up the AD/DA converters.

Suggestions welcome.

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:18 am

i can't speak for the Firepod, but i can speak for Presonus.
and not kindly. I had a Presonus Firestation once upon a time and the thing was buggy as hell with both XP and OSX 10.3.2
Support was crap, and by crap i mean non-existent. The thing gave me BSOD's in XP 4 out of 5 times i would turn it on.
It even gave me a kernel panic in Panther once!

I havent heard any reviews at all on the firepod and am curious as to if its any bit better than the Firestation, which gave me nothing but headaches.

logicat2001 · Post by **logicat2001** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 7:57 pm

FWIW, the Firestation was released at a time when mLan wasn't fully baked. Apparently (based on reports from other users on www.osxaudio.com's forums), things have well leveled out.

Word on the street is good for Firepod w/recent OS 10.3 update.

Best,
Logicat

j · Post by j » Wed Dec 29, 2004 2:52 am

Hello

Hope I'm not screwing up the flow of the topic here but...anybody heard if the Presonus Firebox is good...itz pretty new...also if the drivers are well written...

Thanx
j

MarkH · Post by **MarkH** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 6:34 am

j wrote:Hello

Hope I'm not screwing up the flow of the topic here but...anybody heard if the Presonus Firebox is good...itz pretty new...also if the drivers are well written...

Thanx
j

Damn, the flow is broken!

I think the Firebox is the same components as the Firepod, only smaller. I've done some extensive searching around thet 'net and I have found only positive reviews. Drivers are built right into OS X, clean AD/DA conversion, neutral mic pres, so far so good.

j · Post by j » Wed Dec 29, 2004 6:54 am

Thanx Mark!

That Firebox looks like a cool little number....may be "The One"

Regards!!!
j

bigbone · Post by **bigbone** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 5:16 am

i got a firepod with my pbook, and so far it work great , rock solid, and the driver is in the core audio with MAC,so nothing to download, just plug the firewire in your powerbook , and ready to record....... i'm a drummer, and i record 6 to 8 tracks of drums, and the preamp sound great , lot's of headroom, but the most important, it's solid and reliable,,,,,,,,,

I'm more than happy with my firepod.

olafmol · Post by **olafmol** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 11:23 am

the firebox isn't for sale yet..looks interesting though....still deciding between the ESI quatafire or the firebox

Olaf

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 8:00 pm

well Mark if you do decide to go with the Firepod, i just saw that musiciansfriend has a deal on it
$599, and comes with free 80GB firewire HD, and a $169 Audio Technica microphone for free as well.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=h ... _id/115857
tho they wont have it in stock for another week.

[outofocus] · Post by **[outofocus]** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 6:14 pm

the presonus drivers should be better now.
therefore i would consider to give the firebox a try.

there is also the edirol fa-101, which gets good reviews, but on logicuser-forum someone said that he gets a high noise from the powerbook if the fa-101 is connected.

j · Post by j » Tue Jan 04, 2005 9:20 pm

Thanx for the info on the FA 101/ logicuser forum...

I'm really considering buying the FA 101, but want to make a good decision. Can't wait forever though....really need a better interface.

If not the FA 101 than most likely the Firebox....

peaceout
j

[outofocus] · Post by **[outofocus]** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 8:29 am

personally i decided to get a used rme multiface with cardbus/pcmcia card. excellent hardware and well supported, established drivers made the decision for me.
but there are some minor problems if you have an alu powerbook. rme says that there is a bug in the newer powerbooks pcmcia chipsets, or something like that.
check the rme-audio homepage if you are interested.