Moving from Firewire (Presonus Firebox) to USB 2. Suggestions?

[tremendous]

Due to the current Firewire chip problem, and an imminent purchase of a macbook (well, within a few months) I'm looking to move from my Presonus Firebox to something USB 2 so as to avoid the whole problem.

Looking for any recommendations of AI's with similar specs - that is one or two mic inputs and a bunch (like 4/6) inputs and outputs.

I know the Edirol UA101 and Motu 828 MKII USB are both good, but does anyone else have any experiences they'd care to share?

Thanks
d.

[tremendous]

I know that while USB claims to be faster than Firewire (although it's all about the ins and outs) it can often not be. What are your experiences using USB? I'd rarely be doing more than a stereo in/stereo out...

advice welcome!

[tremendous]

I guess no one then...fwiw, i may go with the edirol UA-101. anyone ever used it?

[hwojtek]

Moving from Firewire to USB 2. Suggestions?
Don't.

[tremendous]

Don't.

ah, so you didn't actually read the whole thread.

As mentioned, I will be moving due to the firewire problem currently occuring in most macbooks due to the use of the agere chip (obviously if the firewire device i have works fine i wont - but if it does, i will)

Thanks for the insightful input though.

[hwojtek]

I'm not aware of the FW chip malfunction in MB. However, I am pretty aware of the difference between the unsustained 480Mbps peak throughput of USB2 compared with fulltime 400 MBps FW in audio and video applications. If you do multitrack, just spare a few bucks more and go for a MBPro (if Firewire doesn't have any problems there - I think it doesn't as I've just migrated two PB's with over 200GB data combined to MBPros using Firewire Target Mode).

[tremendous]

I'm not aware of the FW chip malfunction in MB. However, I am pretty aware of the difference between the unsustained 480Mbps peak throughput of USB2 compared with fulltime 400 MBps FW in audio and video applications. If you do multitrack, just spare a few bucks more and go for a MBPro (if Firewire doesn't have any problems there - I think it doesn't as I've just migrated two PB's with over 200GB data combined to MBPros using Firewire Target Mode).

the problem is mainly with audio interfaces. The new MBP's appear to have different chips but the problem is still being widely reported.

[Tarkovsky]

FW 400 is a far better option. Not only is it quicker than USB2, it's far less to drop out at high CPU usages because it has its own controller.

[Sesshi]

The UA101 is a decent choice if you need to go USB2. I used to have one when I thought I needed a semi-mobile system (I didn't) and it... well, it did the job fine. I was mainly using it for multi-miked stuff.

Armchair 'experts' aside, FW is definitely better than USB2 in sustained high-data-rate throughput but with the vast majority of your audio work you're unlikely to notice a difference, especially on a unit with the number of inputs of the 101.

I did prefer the utility of some of the compact Firewire interfaces I had though. However it seems you don't have a choice.