Bought a Firebox...good or bad?

Silence · Post by **Silence** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 12:45 am

I just bought a firebox and cant really play with it tonight
but i wanted to know if i did a good thing?

it stood between the Onyx Satellite and the Firebox....
and in the end the firebox won...
my q is....witch one is better...cuz i was thinking about the ultralite but i thought it to be overkill and the reason why i didnt choose the onyx is because i´ve heard a bit of negative reviews and that the firebox is a well used device...

i want to use it at home and kick the shit out of music and live and still be able to play live.....
so i was just wondering....about ppls views...

nite nite

Silence · Post by **Silence** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 1:43 pm

...everyone hates me!!!!!

well i hope that its the shit....

geo · Post by **geo** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 3:22 pm

I've heard good things about the firebox, let's see if it sits well on your system...

mechcon · Post by **mechcon** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 8:24 pm

do you happen to have a macbook pro by any chance?

spiral · Post by **spiral** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 9:11 pm

i've had no issue yet with my firebox, it gets a little hot and it took a forum search to figure out how to cue properly but it seems ok

mechcon · Post by **mechcon** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 10:00 pm

there are issues with the firebox and current/first revision macbook pros (no problem on the powerbooks) but basically the problem is, is that with the firewire ports on the macbooks/macbook pros (please confirm on the macbooks though), dont entirely power up the fireboxes on their own due to a restriction in the voltages in the firewire ports.

do a search for "firebox macbook pro" or something like that, here and the apple discussion forums too.

Nothing will be done about it except suggest to power it up initially with the power adaptor.

I'll still get a macbook pro and use the firebox with no problems, its not a major issue to me.

slipmip · Post by **slipmip** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 6:11 am

I'm using the firebox with the regular macbook and its great. I even dropped it at a gig and it fell like 3 feet onto the floor (carpeted) and it fine. I was stressing cause the guitar player walked into the midi cable and it got yanked off the table. Pre's sound great though I recommend getting a nice tube pre for vocals and stuff. I was looking at the ultralite too, but the firebox is cheaper and a bit smaller. Plus if you don't need all those i/o's I don't see the point. enjoy!

rMo · Post by **rMo** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 7:29 am

I bought a firebox a few weeks ago. I usually use the firepod in my studio but needed something a bit more portable....I orginally bought the mAudio firewire 410 and didn't like it at all. The mains volume is not absolute which can cause big problems live. The firebox has a fair (and same) price as the 410 and has worked great.

I use a macbook pro also....there was a seperate driver I had to download from presonus to get the internal mixer to work right, but I have had good results...I also haven't noticed any power problems, but it does get a little warm.

Hope this helps.

Silence · Post by **Silence** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 4:09 pm

I dont have a macbook pro...i use pc´s and i havent used it yet (problems with the computer) but it seems to be ok!

but i´ll post results as soon as i´ve tried it....

mechcon · Post by **mechcon** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 8:53 pm

Silence wrote:I dont have a macbook pro...i use pc´s and i havent used it yet (problems with the computer) but it seems to be ok!

but i´ll post results as soon as i´ve tried it....

actually a few pc's may start to have this limitation on their firewire too, just be cautious

Silence · Post by **Silence** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 11:30 pm

im still waiting for my computer to get well so i dont have any info on how it works but a question, how does this power problem manifest it self?
...i could do a serch...i think i wil!

Silence · Post by **Silence** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 11:33 pm

just remembered to add....i only have a four pin FW connector, so no bus power either way....right?

Silence · Post by **Silence** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 9:32 pm

soo....update time....

I´ve got a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo 1630....
Amd 64 - 3400+(2200ghz), 512 ram and windows xp home...
4 pin firewire......i got 8ms latency....and the firebox worked like
a charm....a charm i tells ya....well atleast so far...
i think ill keep it...i like it...though i irritated the crap out of myselfe
with one thing.....THERE´S NO ON/OFF SWITCH!!.....the hell kind of shit is that?....do i have to manually unplug the damned box by pulling out the power cord?....seriously?.....that reaaaaaallly buggs the crap out of me....

well thats my 2 öre for now.....i´ll try to update this thread if i find anything usefull.....

peace love and soul!

dn83 · Post by **dn83** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 12:10 am

The Firebox is from Presonus, right? I myself have had three interfaces so far; the Tascam US-122, M-Audio Firewire 410 and now my Presonus Inspire Firewire.

So far, the Presonus Inspire is by far the best I've had, even more so than the M-Audio 410, which had tons of electric noise and just made me nervous!! LOL Really, the M-Audio 410 just felt like a really unstable/unpredictable overkill, at least on my set up. But the value of M-Audio products is generally fine for the price you usually pay for them...

Anyway, Presonus seems like a good company with some really nice products and they've got great customer service, too. Cheers and good luck!

Shoma · Post by **Shoma** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 1:12 am

I always tend to laugh at this kind of posts, you buy first, and then ask if its good or bad...I see clear logic

Bought a Firebox...good or bad?

Bought a Firebox...good or bad?

good.