Help me choose an interface!

[paw1]

I'm currently in the process of choosing and buying a new interface. It will be used with my PC and Cubase 6 or Sonar X1 (haven't decided which one to go with yet). Specifications I'd like to see in the interface:

8 (good sounding) mic preamps
2 instrument inputs
2 midi inputs
The possibility to use external preamps (line level inputs?)
The possibility to be able to combine with another device (spdif or ADAT?)
2 headphone outputs

The most important things to me are the quality of the preamps and conversion, low latency, and being able to record different kinds of sources with it. Deviations from these specifications won't necessarily make or break the deal. I have only tried the MBox2 yet and won't be able to test try any units before I purchase. These are the units I've been looking at:

Mackie Onyx Blackbird Premium 16x16
Focusrite Saffire Pro 40
Focusrite Liquid Saffire 56
RME Fireface 800
Steinberg MR816X
Steinberg UR824
Presonus Audiobox 1818 VSL

Do you know any of these units? Which do you prefer and why?

Any help is appreciated

 

[guitarplayr82]

I have the Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 and I haven't had any problems with it whatsoever. The pres are very flat and clean and the MixControl software is actually very useful as long as you learn how to use it properly. I chose the Pro 40 after a long search of all the interfaces in the $500 price range as it seemed it had all the features I wanted with the best quality for the best price. It looks like it would be a perfect fit based on your specifications. The only limitation I can see is that it only has one MIDI input, but I believe you could get a MIDI splitter box to expand its MIDI in capabilities.

 

[paw1]

Wow, someone actually answered Thank you!

Well, actually, I mostly "overkill" on my specification demands, "just to be sure", if you know what I mean Two MIDI inputs is for sure overkill. One would work just fine.

The Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 looks VERY good, on the paper. I like almost everything about it. If I'm going to be picky, I'm not super excited about the "grouped" 48V power, although it probably would be hard to not make it work for me (since most dynamics don't mind the extra voltage). I've heard a lot about connection troubles with firewire units. Seeing that almost all (if not all) my mentioned candidates are firewire units, it's not a valid point. The icing on the cake would be a reverse polarity switch on each channel, but that I have only seen on one unit (Roland Octo-capture, which looks amazing!).

More opinions are welcomed. I wish to shop within this week

 

[Justsomeguy]

We picked up the Pro40 to replace a Motu 8 pre that got stolen (grr!) and really like it. the pre's are very clean, the mix control is fairly comprehensive, and the bundled plugins are pretty good (well, better than most stock plugins anyway). the only thing's i miss on the motu 8 pre are;

all the inputs on the back (we had it racked and this made life much easier for our application)
MIDI In and Out
the front panel was better laid out imo
Individual phantom power on each channel

however, the Pro40 has 8 outs and two headphones which have all been amazing, and i never got on with motu's cuemix software.

in terms of Firewire stability, we use macs at work and have had no problems at all, but i know there have been issues with PC's. however, do a search around the forums as there is a chipset that is apparently very reliable and not super expensive (i think it's the "Texas Instruments" one but don't take my word for that). tbh, i've only used the Alesis Mutlimix 16 as a USB interface with more than 4 pre's and it was ok up to about 8 sources at once, but once you got any higher the latency was awful.