any more opinions/feedback on presonus firebox & mbox 2

chikitronix · Post by **chikitronix** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 7:28 am

am deciding between the two interfaces at the moment...

am starting to lean towards the firebox for budget's sake, but still keen to hear if anyone thinks the mbox2 pro is worth the extra spend...

does anyone know if the headphone output on the mbox2 pro can be used as a two-channel output, so you can send a “cue” mix to the headphones and a main mix to the main output, like the firebox does ?

please let me know if you have good or bad feedback on either...

have done lots of reading, but would really appreciate any feedback...

thanks for the two ppl that have already given me theirs...

chiki

arctic ranger · Post by **arctic ranger** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 7:58 am

dunno about the mbox, but am lovin the firebox. hella easy to set up and use right away.

chikitronix · Post by **chikitronix** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 8:05 am

yeah, the firebox seems to be all thumbs up, from all the reviews n specs i've read to friends who've used it and some of the feedback i've already got from here...

nice to hear more of the same.

thanks

optimistic · Post by **optimistic** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 11:55 am

+1 for the Firebox.

Easy to set up and sounds great.

DJ VAKIS · Post by **DJ VAKIS** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 12:08 pm

FireBox all the way.

dcease · Post by **dcease** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 5:07 pm

re: mbox 2 pro headphones...

yes, you can send different channels to the 2! headphone outs. i think the first set is 1/2, and the second is 3/4 or 5/6, don't remember off the top of my head.

i actually thought about the firebox when i got the mbox2pro. seems like a nice box, esp for the price. however, again, i am very pleased with the pro. and if you did want to run protools, hehheh, that would be the way to go...

dcease · Post by **dcease** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 5:10 pm

yeah, the first headphone out is 1/2, the second is switchable between 1/2 and 3/4 via a little button under the jack...

scottwallis · Post by **scottwallis** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 12:16 am

firebox is cool...wish the volume button was bigger tho....its a good little inteface tho, rock solid

tricil · Post by **tricil** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 12:34 am

the fireboxes cue headphone output is also loud as fuck. It goes up to 11!

chikitronix · Post by **chikitronix** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:42 am

yeah that's so funny-cool how it goes up to 11 on the firebox, you gotta love that !

and the firebox definately gets big thumbs up from everyone who uses it, which is great...

i forgot about the two headphone outputs on the mbox...and thanks for going to the trouble of checking the routing details...am stoked that it has that function too...

and yeah, i learnt of pro-tools, so that in itself makes the mbox tempting, always nice to be able to use a prog you know well...

well looks like it 's a money decision now...but good to know that if i do decide to go the cheaper route and get the firebox, that i wont be buying a piece of crap...

thanks everyone...

chiki

fareshassouna · Post by **fareshassouna** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 11:51 am

Hi

Great Card ( Firebox ) Just bought it, haven't figured all the bits out yet, but it works out of the box, and sounds fantastic. I even called Tech support to check if they respond ( they do ).

One perhaps obvious tip. Always use good Quality cables.

Thanks

Fares

jesso · Post by **jesso** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 12:45 pm

Fire box is great.
I have both an mbox 2 and a firebox.
My mbox 2 has just broken, and im not bothered fixing it. I dont miss protools at all, and as for the actual hardware... The preamps suck, its built like a toy, and the D/A playback is not very convincing when put next to some other brands.
My firebox I use mainly for DJing, as its built like a tank.
Playback is much more convincing, the soundquality getting much closer to my studio interface, which is an RME fireface 400 (which is lovely).
I have tried the preamps, and they are very clear and usable, with low noise. Way superior to mbox. Although I know the mbox 2pro should be an improvment over the mbox 2, If I were you I wouldnt go near it.
Now that logic is so cheap, protools dosnt really make sense for the home user any more. Id only get digidesign stuff again if I REALY needed it.
With logic, you can use any interface you like.
Good luck with it!

Jaan · Post by **Jaan** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 1:09 pm

Presonus Firebox is great, no problems yet, just slight ergonomic issues with cabling etc, hardware is perfect for what I need, low latency. Sound quality is fine (as if I could tell the dif.)

Good luck.

Geezus · Post by **Geezus** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 4:51 pm

Dont have the firebox but it looks tight.

I had the mbox2 since last september and I'm getting rid of it. The driver support is absolute shit and can actually lead to crashes in certain hosts. I dumped it on ebay and replaced it with an emu0404 usb and couldn't be happier.

I also noticed that there is no noticeable delay when monitoring audio input through ableton live when I use the emu. Even on the lowest latency setting my computer could handle on the mbox2 (512 samples) there would be a delay when monitoring audio input, causing you to slur your words when using a mic. I dont have this problem any more with the emu. Also, the emu was cheaper.

I dont have firewire so I couldn't get the firebox. But it looks like a great choice.

liveISlife · Post by **liveISlife** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 4:58 pm

Firebox is uber sweet. Burly, durable, reliable, compact. Only thing about it, if your using a macbook pro you either need the power adapter or you need an external hard drive hooked in to it for power. ( i guess thats apples fault it does not self power off the firewire port

) i dont know about the macbook.

any more opinions/feedback on presonus firebox & mbox 2

any more opinions/feedback on presonus firebox & mbox 2 pro

Firebox is great!