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anonymous 31 October 2010

I just bought a Saffire 6 USB. As some might recall, I had made several posts related to interfaces some time ago. I actually bought the Saffire Pro 14, in order to get up to 96Khz sampling, but the Firewire was a disaster, with tons of dropouts and random digititis, so I exchanged it for the USB 6. There was conflicting information from Focusrite as to whether the Pro 14 was Vista 64 bit compatible (both on the website and in the literature) but I can report problems, and would say it is not compatible.

In any event I have had the Saffire 6 USB up and running now for a few hours. What a remarkable relief to have a reliable interface. It may only go up to 44.1 or 48Khz, but I cannot believe how much more easily one can work when the system is stable.

As far as sound, it thoroughly crushes the Firebox I had (for the brief occasions that it worked) in every way. It is extremely quiet and noise free. It is simple to use, and I like it.

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anonymous Sun, 10/31/2010 - 19:59

True, I had been in the routine of doing that (if you mean something like disabling the other sound drivers and enabling the Pro 14 Driver) with the Firebox, and tried it with the Pro 14, but it was still intermittently unreliable, and my best guess was the Firewire chipset and or connection. I am apparently not alone in this regard. HP computers are just prone to compatibility problems with Firewire interfaces, especially with 6 to 4 pin wires. It might have been solved with an external Firewire expresscard, but the UBS was calling out to me. It was saying "hey jmm22, cut your losses and embrace the elegant simplicity and reliability of USB." Yes, I am extremely happy with the reliablity and sound. Who knows, it may well just be average for today's devices, but for someone who had nothing but agony to this point, it is a quantum leap forward. Five hours now and counting without a hitch :-)

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