AhlProductions said:
Which interface would be a better buy in the Long run? PCIe or Firewire?
I purchased a new MacPro Tower and I feel a bit uneasy because I don't know if should have bought the laptop instead. The only difference between the laptop and the tower is the PCIe availibility in the back. Does that feature outweight the benefits of using a handy laptop when it comes to sound quality?
I could have used a firewire interface with the laptop. Is there a difference, and if so, how big of a difference between using a dedicated card as opposed to a firewire cable?
An answer to this question would definitly help me relax??Thankyou everybody
-FOLK
I think you are having anxiety about issues that don't apply.
First, which interface would be better in the long run? This totally depends on how you are using your computer, the other equipment you'll be connecting to it. The part of that question that really does not apply is the concept of "long run". The only way to buy equipment is to fill the need you have today. So if the PCI card is the best thing for you right now today, on the computer you are using right now today, then you are making the right choice.
Second, why are you concerned about using firewire with a laptop that you did not buy? That doesn't make sense to me. You bought a desktop, which has a lot more going for it over a laptop than just the PCI slots. One of the advantages of the desktop is that it *does* have PCIe slots.
As far as sound quality, a good PCIe interface and a good firewire interface will probably sound just about as good as each other. But that's not where the advantage of PCIe lies. The real advantage is that you get *far* better data throughput using PCI cards than firewire. The other advantage is that it is *in addition to* any gear you have on the firewire port.
A problem that is happening these days is that people are overloading their firewire ports. For example, if you have a few hard drives, then add something like an
SSL Duende, you are really at or beyond your limit as far as how much data the firewire buss can handle.
With a desktop that has PCIe slots, you can also give more firewire capability to your computer by adding a PCIe firewire card. So you can add more firewire by utilizing a PCI slot. This is a great thing.
So in my opinion, for serious audio and recording work, a desktop is far better than having a laptop. I have both, but I need both for my work. At home I use my desktop and PCI audio interfaces. I also have laptop for when I need to do notation projects on site somewhere, or play live gigs. But I bought the desktop first, and will always have a desktop for the heavy lifting.
I don't think you should have any regrets about choosing a desktop, or going with a PCIe card audio interface. There are real advantages to both. Just my opinion.
