i've got one
not sure what i think of it yet.
i've used it on my win2k laptop (top of the line
dell latitude D800) as a line-level input device (for recording off the board, etc) and it's definitely crashed (bounced) my machine. a LOT. i haven't updated the driver yet, though, so i'm partly to blame here--i'm still running from the one on the cd.
i've not used it as a mic preamp yet. i need to, though, b/c that's half of the reason i bought it.
my biggest beef about it is that there are no level meters on the unit itself, so you really have no idea what your levels are like going in. are they clipping going into the unit? no clue.
it DOES drain your battery. i've got a 2nd battery (what dell calls a 48-hour battery) that gives me about 6 hours worth of uptime.....but powering the mobilepre, i get about an hour.
to be entirely honest, i'm not quite happy with the unit. it's bottom-feeder equipment (why else would something "new" only do 16/48?), and has performed like it so far, at least with the driver off the cd. i'm confident that when i upgrade the driver, i'll have better things to say about it. i was recording our gig on saturday and it bounced my machine 3 times in 2 hours. that's just not good. hard to record when you're having unplanned reboots.
but the negativeness aside, when i've managed to get it working, not crashing my machine, and not compressing the hell out of the signal, it's turned out VERY usable results. VERY usable. on par with the Audiophile 2496 i have in my desktop. so i'm holding out hope that the mobilepre will blossom nicely.
part of me still thinks i should've waited and saved more and just gotten
the Firewire 410. i might do that anyway b/c i'm impatient and when i'm unhappy with something right out the box, i punt quickly.
....so....given my experience, it might not be what you're looking for. but i'm sure upgrading the driver will give me better stability.
wade
