lexicon omega? or should i go with a firewire?

[guitar junkie]

i am about to get an imac G5 and i was wondering about my interface....
i have no PCI slots so i must go USB or Firewire, the thing is i hear two schools of thought on it. some people ONLY use Firewire while others use USB.

now the thing for me is have a budget i need something that i can run on this computer that will work with my basic software, i also need something for mixing IE a mixer. now i have looked at USB and i have found that some people have had stuff and hated it while others use firewire and hate it......
after digging around (and not wanting pro tools) i came up with the Lexicon Omega studio... which is USB of course the people i have read about that use it say that they like it just fine.... would this be a good tool for small audio? or should i get some kind of comparable Firewire? and if so what one do you guys think i would be able to use for vocals and acoustic guitars and other acoustic instruments? it must be able to power my AT4040 mic..

 

[dgatwood]

Firewire. Definitely Firewire. I don't know anything about that particular interface, but I've read hundreds of posts on various DAW boards complaining about USB audio clicks and pops, performance issues, etc.

Of course, that shouldn't be a surprise; USB typically takes more CPU power than Firewire when moving bulk data around, at least where hard drives are concerned. It would not be susprising if the same were true for USB audio.