So, I'm fed up and want to get a new interface. The saffire pro 26 or 10 seem like a good match for me, but I would like to hear some testimonals.
Pros, Cons?
Other interfaces???

Gimmie advice!!!

I love it, I was drooling over a fireface 800 for months but it was way out of my price bracket, and I wanted an interface with 8 pre-amps and good monitoring facilities. The Saffire pro 26i/o sounds great and has 16 channels of ADAT so if you want a system that you can expand in the future I'd go for that. It's replaced my previous hercules interface, mixer and seperate pre amp all in one box. The pre amps are good, you get great stereo imaging on drum overheads, the intrument inputs sound great on bass... I honestly can't say enough good things about it. Funnily enough, what swung it for me is that it has 2 headphone amps, very useful.


Like i said earlier the only interface i'd go for above this one is the fireface (on the strength of the convertors) but it's almost twice the price. It has slightly more flexible monitoring facilties but only 4 pre amps, so on that basis the Saffire is a steal.

Hope this helps.

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It was cold and it rained and so I felt like an actor.

Everything captaingoatboy says is true - although I'd like to add the DA converters are also amazing for the price, and my mixing has become a lot more accurate because of them

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www.myspace.com/wapskallionremixes

Damn straight baby.

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It was cold and it rained and so I felt like an actor.

Hi there,

I would like to give a thumbs up to pro 26 interface - on a G5 2x2GHz
10.4.8 Great sounding DA with excellent imaging no earthing problems at all,
but I use all balanced cables just in case. I would recommend downloading the firewiresdk23 as advised by Focusrite as this driver is flawless, great latency & no sleep problems.

Highly recommended for the price - Pingo

I'm thinking of getting one of these, however these people don't seem too pleased with theirs, check out the reviews towards the bottom of this page

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/shop/reviews/product_id/8553#1840
they could of course be working for a rival company...

nice, reassuring info. Thanks everyone.
It's funny though, mention any firewire interface and someone will tell you to get the fireface 800. I'm sure it's great, but the FF400 is more than I'd like to spend already.

-The "pops and cracks" things I have heard about for most interfaces btw. I have heard that it is a coreaudio or mac firewire driver problem. I hope apple makes that go away!

Edited by squidlarvae (16/03/07 07:02 PM)

On the basis of everything I've read in print and on this forum (I don't own one!), I would say, yes, it's a good product.

However, also on the basis of what I've read in this forum, there are lots of people who have experienced various sorts of problems with these products, and there are more than a few who have complained about customer support.

On a very quick judgement basis, it seems that the problems being experienced have more to do with the computers, software, and connection protocols unique to Apple than with the product. So, is it the product's fault? No. But do other manufacturers' products work better for most people? Possibly.

And while many have complained about customer support, the manufacturer has had a presence on this forum and seems to be doing a good job at trying to solve users' problems.

Let us know how it turns out!

my firewire interface (tascam FW-1884) is working fine... and its also a nice control surface... and midi interface....

no pops or crackles... i love it!

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NoteToSelfDontDie.com / my new drum kit!!!!111!1

is saffire using apple's class-compliant "plug-and-play" drivers (like apogee and presonus among others) or are they using their own drivers (like motu and RME)?
Seems everyone i know that uses the apple class-compliant products has had problems with it at some point...pops and crackles, kernel panics, buffer issues... and it always comes back to apple's lazy behavior and slow pace to fix problems. For example, someone mentioned the firewire SDK... i know that is what a lot of manufacturers are slyly recommending people install that because it has firewire drivers that are supposed to be in 10.5, and much improved over what is normally installed in Tiger.

Sorry if I don't have anything positive to post about the saffire as I'm curious myself.

It looks like the best option for me - regarding my other thread - I need a MIDI interface, Couple of inputs and and outputs to my amp/speaker setup, all via usb.

Instead of getting a soundcard that does this I prefer this option...what do you think...?

Before I ran down my kit sales business I sold 8 of these units. Of the customers who came back to my follow up emails, I had:-

4 very happy customers
3 no replies
1 customer who had endless problems with the Mac drivers whose unit I took back and replaced with a MOTU 828 at cost.

I am told thse problems are now sorted, but I would urge you if at all possible to take a unit on approval as a Mac user, both KMR and Digitial Village do approval schemes, although I'm not sure if they would let this play with something that requires you to open the software disks.

When they work, the Green design pres do a nice job, (although 2 of these customer eventually invested in BG1s as their go to pres). The clock isn't the cleanest in the world, but Saffires do represent good VFM.

Reg

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Google less; read more!

I haven't used the Saffire 26 nor the 10, but I did try the Saffire LE and I'm quite impressed by its quality. The pres seem to be derived from the Focusrite Green range and they certainly sound quite a lot like them - I used to have a Green 2 until recently. FWIW, the Saffire sounds quite good to my ears - much better than the M-Audio FireWire interfaces or the MBox 2 or MBox 2 Pro, for example.

Cheers,
Frank

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Imagination is more important than knowledge - A. Einstein

Quote RegressiveRock:

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The clock isn't the cleanest in the world, but Saffires do represent good VFM.

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Now that's quite an interesting statement - have you come across much of a problem clocking? I know that there is an intermittent issue with multiple clock sources causing the unit to get a little spooked, but it is quite an esoteric setup that causes this.

I have in fact scope'd the clock as part of beta testing and comparing it to other units out there (that are considerably more expensive, albeit older), it is absolutely rock solid and perfectly square. Focusrite are (rightly) quite proud of the clock implementation, so I'd be interested to hear about problems with it.

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Veni, Vidi, Aesculi
(I came, I saw, I conkered)

Sorry, should also talk about the unit. Damned fine! I have personally used it on a G4 Mac Mini, a G5 iMac and my PC and it worked fine. I also was drawn to the 16 channels of lightpipe and use another converter (Creamware A16 Ultra) to give 16 ins/outs on balanced line connectors so 8 channels are for my (old) outboard and 8 are for my hardware synths. No big mixers needed any more.

In terms of quality, we recently tested a Motu, a Fireface (which I also was on the point of buying before the Saffire Pro was announced) and my Saffire and it was noticeable that there was bugger all difference in quality between the RME and the Saffire. Both sounding very nice! But one considerably cheaper and having an overall volume control....

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Veni, Vidi, Aesculi
(I came, I saw, I conkered)

sounds like good news overall. I've always trusted motu but the 8pre (which I was thinking about too) doesn't have 8 analog outputs, and isn't bus powered. The traveler is a little more than I want to spend, and I'd also like 8 pres in a little box next to my computer. RME is out of my price range too of course.
My core audio experience hasn't been too bad, but it should be rock solid. I bet the ensemble has the same problems as any cheaper device is this regard. I loaded the new FW drivers, but haven't done any real testing yet as I've been too busy.
Saffire 26 still sounds like the best option for me, thanks for the input everyone!

Quote Dave B:

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Quote RegressiveRock:

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The clock isn't the cleanest in the world, but Saffires do represent good VFM.

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Now that's quite an interesting statement - have you come across much of a problem clocking? I know that there is an intermittent issue with multiple clock sources causing the unit to get a little spooked, but it is quite an esoteric setup that causes this.

I have in fact scope'd the clock as part of beta testing and comparing it to other units out there (that are considerably more expensive, albeit older), it is absolutely rock solid and perfectly square. Focusrite are (rightly) quite proud of the clock implementation, so I'd be interested to hear about problems with it.

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Dave

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the clock in this unit within its class. I think you may remember when we last met for a beer, I suggested that a simple improvement I'd be interested to try on the "Pro" would be to clock it with something really accurate to see if there were any clarity improvements. From memory, the published jitter figures suggest there might be.

Other than that, it was merely a passing comment.

Reg

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Google less; read more!

Fair enough Reg, point taken. However, it is worth noting that clocking has come a long way in the last few years and even cheap devices now have clocks that only five years or so were only available on much more expensive gear. I agree that a proper clock unit would be an improvement, but the gap between cheap and expensive is now much closer. Not perfect ... but pretty good nonetheless.

Hmmm .... must do some more experiments soon ....

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Veni, Vidi, Aesculi
(I came, I saw, I conkered)

Quote Dave B:

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Hmmm .... must do some more experiments soon ....

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Ooh look at this Mini Me sat on my desk. What is this knob that sends black signals over AES and SPDIF?

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Google less; read more!

Well, it's on it's way. I'm excited and will give my own testimonial in a few days!
I am convinced this is the best interface for me.

it is the best, you'll love it

enjoy