Ive never used the Focusrite. but i do own a firepod which has been a great addition to the studio. i went for a 4 horrible mic pres on my alesis usb to 8 very acceptable pres with the firepod and its so much easier being able to track 8 channels.

ive heard some excellent results with this. id say go with the firpod unless theres something about the focusrite i havent heard.

i second the firepod. i've got one and love it. i've never used the focusrite, but i just went to their website and didn't see anything super special about it that would make me want it instead of the firepod. also, the website didn't say whether or not it supplied phantom power. the firepod supplies phantom power to all 8 preamps; i'm not saying that the focusrite doesn't have it, i just didn't see it on the website. the site didn't even have a picture of it, which kinda turns me off of the product anyway. idk, maybe it's just me, but i like for the company to be proud enough to put a pic up of their product on the one little page that they dedicate to it...but that's another issue altogether.

anyway, go with the firepod...it's a bitchin' cool toy.

-dave

the thing i noticed about the saffire pro was that it had no monitor out like in the firepod. or is there one that i didnt notice

ok, so i must correct myself...i guess i was looking at the wrong page on the website; it DOES have phantom power and there ARE pics up. as for the monitoring question, i didn't see one either. i know for a fact that the firepod has two, so that way you can send one to monitors and one to a headphone amp.