PCI vs. Firewire w/regards to Audiophile, question.

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Toddskins

Toddskins

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PC4 3.0 GHtz FSB 800 with 1 Gig RAM
Windows XP
Sonar 3
Audigy 2 with Firewire port on it.

Question regarding Sound quality, latency issues on 2 different M-Audio products:

Firewire makes its connection to a computer via a PCI card, so then how is a PCI card faster or slower than Firewire? Am I missing something??? Firewire's speed is 400Mb/sec, right? What is the speed of a PCI card? Does this affect latency? Does the Firewire Audiophile have better quality circuits?

Namely, I am having a tough time deciding between an Audiophile 2496 PCI, or the Firewire Audiphile.

I use MIDI, want S/PDIF, and don't personally see the benefits of having more than 2 inputs at this time in my career, but don't mind spending twice as much money if there is good reason to.

Answers please?

Todd
 
Many FireWire connections are built in to the Motherboard just like USB. I wouldn't say that FW is superior to a pci based system unless you are looking at expandability, flexibility and portability (and ease of use). FW, in my opinion is superior to pci in those arenas.

It is true that if you don't have FW on your pc, you can buy a FW pci card.

Latency will not be noticably different. Now if you're looking at RME products instead of M-Audio, then yes there's a slight difference. Latency on your machine is not going to be a problem with either FW or PCI.

Offhand I don't know how fast pci is compaired to FW. But I've heard it is faster to some degree.

You could get USB with 2 inputs and probobly wouldn't even notice a large difference in latency.
 
The best thing about firewire is portability. So if you're not planning on recording on different machines or a laptop, then you may as well get a pci card as they're usually cheaper for the same capability.
 
Thanks!

Thanks to all of you. Quite helpful.

And Ocnor... that is a great link/chart. Much appreciated!

Cool

Todd
 
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