Focusrite Saffire PRO 26i/o

[cawhite12]

Well, it seems that focusrite will be jumping into the larger scale firewire market with this unit:

http://www.focusrite.com/productdetails.asp?id=61&iRange=5

Seems that it will probably be a direct competitor with Presonus's new Firestudio, since it will also have 8 pres, 2 ADAT's, DSP Mixer, no remote but costs $200 less. It also does 192KHz vs. Firestudio's 96KHz (not really any deal breaker for me, but...) Also says that the pres are based on the Green series pres. Does anyone have any experience with those?

Does anyone own the current Saffire? How is the driver stability on it. I've had no problems with my Firepod, but it would be nice to have a little more expandability, and I'm not so sure about $899 for the Firestudio. I would get another Firepod, but I've heard of people having issues with the dual Firepod setup, so I'm not sure.

 

[rweiss]

I'm also very curious as to how good these pre's might be. I'm looking to spend $1k on an interface in the near future. The Mackie 800r and MOTU 896HD were golden until I realised they didn't support MIDI. Does anyone know if the Firestudio's pre's and converters will be better than the Saffire's? Should I hold out for the Firestudio then?

Thanks,
Ryan

 

[cawhite12]

Looks like we might have to wait a bit for the saffire pro. Zzounds website before said that it was expected in on 3/17/06, but now says 5/15/06, and there is no more information on focusrite's website either. Hopefully it will come out soon, I'd like to check one of these out. The only thing I worry about is driver stability, as my Firepod has been rock solid in that department, the Saffire would have to be stable as well for me to jump to it, I guess only time will tell.