Looking at Firepod on craigslist

Hello all, I've started following this forum lately as I'm hoping to start making use of my MBP for music a lot more. I play guitar, bass, drums, and a few others, I've done some recording on GB for fun just with the built in mic and plugging instruments directly to the Audio-In. Now I've decided its time to do this a bit more seriously, I'm a university student so I can get Logic pretty cheap, and otherwise I'm scoping craigslist for some of the hardware I'd like.

I've just spotted an ad for a 1-year-old Presonus Firepod. It's selling for $500 (Canadian) including 8 XLR cables (claiming the Firepod is worth 700 and the cables are worth 300). I was just hoping somebody on here might have a feel for whether this is indeed a good deal or not. The ad says the thing is good as new, only used a couple times to record drums.

I was originally looking at 2 channel interfaces, since for the time being I won't be doing much more than just solo stuff by myself. But I could imagine recording with some friends down the road, and maybe mic-ing up my drums properly some day, and at first glance, this seems to be a good deal to me.

I've also been looking into the world of MPCs lately, eyeing a used MPC1000, but that's a whole other story.

Anyway, thanks a lot for the input.

Jeff

Great thanks a lot for the reply and for finding some prices for me. I had looked at a local retailer and their prices for the FP10 are much higher, over $700. But yeah, i don't know what kind of cables he's trying to sell, but I wouldn't ever pay 300$ for 8 cables.

About 2 channels vs 8, I agree that right now, all I need is 2 channels, and something like a Firebox is more attractive in terms of space constraints and being bus-powered. But I'm just looking down the road at when I might want to record more channels. That said, I'm only one guy, so unless I'm recording with some friends, I'll be hard pressed to accomplish enough things at once to warrant more than two channels.

Anyway, I'll see if I can get the price down, since clearly this isn't a phenomenal deal.

Thanks again for your help, further inputs appreciated too.

Jeff

ChrisA said:

A few points:

1) never buy computer hardware before you need it. The price continues to fall. Interfaces that cost 4500 a few years ago sell for $300 today

2) You will know more next year then today. Today you don't really even know what you want. in a year you will likely have developed stronger opinions

3) Having two boxes is a good thing. If you buy the two channel box today, later it can still be of use even if you buy an 8 channel box. They can be used in parallel as an 10 channel "aggregate device". Also having tow boxes provides a level of backup. If one fails you are not all the way dead.

Buy just what you can use today the next year buy more stuff. My #1 rule is ways "never buy computer hardware before you need it"

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That's really good advice, I think you've swayed me. I'll probably pick up a new Firebox instead or something. My local store has them for 370$.