Presonus Inspire vs Firebox

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sync

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I'm going to get one of these. The Firebox seems to be more popular and I'm trying to understand why.

The Firebox has spdif and even though I googled 'spdif', I don't understand what it is used for.

The Firebox has 6 line outs and I don't get why you would need that many.

The Firebox has midi i/o. Even though I have a usb midi interface I can see how it would be handy to have this on the interface. I don't think I'd want to pay an extra hundred dollars just for that though. I've also read that some people are having problems with the midi on this unit and are unable to use it.
 
IIRC from when I was looking at the two of them, the Inspire will only record the 2 mic or line ins, along with the RCA ins. You won't get a "true" 4 input system unless one of those ins is a stereo turntable. So I went with the Firebox mostly so I had 4 true ins for drum micing.

Like I said, this is what I remember from researching them 6+ months ago, so I may be wrong :-)
 
sync said:
The Firebox has spdif and even though I googled 'spdif', I don't understand what it is used for.
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Gives you two digital input and output channels. An example of its use would be a new synth that has S/PDIF outputs. With one cable, you are outputting two channels of digital audio from the synth into the Firebox. This is one example.

sync said:
The Firebox has 6 line outs and I don't get why you would need that many.
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Flexibility. One application would be outputs enough for surround mixing (5.1)

sync said:
The Firebox has midi i/o. Even though I have a usb midi interface I can see how it would be handy to have this on the interface. I don't think I'd want to pay an extra hundred dollars just for that though. I've also read that some people are having problems with the midi on this unit and are unable to use it.
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Not sure about the MIDI issues, but I've never used MIDI on any interface as I have a MOTU Microlite for that. I imagine for some it would be convenient to have right on the interface (if it is in fact functioning properly).

The Firebox I feel is a great value for the money (I think the price dropped recently too), and it has two very usable pre-amps on it. I owned a Firepod, and really liked it. I think the Firebox would sound similar to the Firepod, just fewer pre's. I realize the Inspire has two pre-amps as well, but I'm *guessing* that the quality is not equal to the Firebox - not just with the pre's, but all around. I haven't used one, so I cautiously say this and mean no harm or foul to the Inspire interface, Presonus and all of it's happy users. :)
 
Thanks for the explanations guys. So far the Firebox advantages aren't applicable to my situation.

The Presonus Inspire/Firebox comparison on their web site doesn't mention any difference in the pres, but I guess that doesn't mean anything.
 
Firebox pres sound better. they must be different because firepod pres are the same as firebox ones.
 
I just noticed the Inspire doesn't have any knobs. That alone is probably enough for me to justify getting the Firebox.
 
sync said:
I just noticed the Inspire doesn't have any knobs. That alone is probably enough for me to justify getting the Firebox.
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Yeah, Presonus' big thing on that is that everything is software based to make the Inspire as portable as possible. Me, I rather like leaning over and tweaking a knob to boost the mic level. I'm old school that way :p
 
I'm running XP Media Center on my notebook and I jsut read this on the Presonus site:
"We have seen many issues unique to systems running Windows XP Media Edition, and strongly recommend using Windows XP Home or Professional instead."
 
Enlighten said:
Go with the Firebox. Better sounding preamps and more included preamps. Check out more about the Firebox here.
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Actually, don't the Firebox and Inspire both have two preamps?

Enlighten me...
 
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The inspire lacks in somethings. It doesn't have SPDIF and MIDI connectivity. as well as its inputs and outputs are via RCA, as opposed to 1/4" on the Firebox.
 
I'm not going to reformat the hard drive on my new notebook, buy a new copy of XP and install that. So according to Presonus, it looks like neither the Inpsire or Firebox are suitable for me.
 
I wonder what XP Media Edition has that would cause problems...maybe extra crap in the OS that just bogs it up even more.

I looked at the Presonus site and couldn't find what you found regarding the issues. Is it under product FAQ's? Just curious.
 
It's better to avoid XP media ed. for any audio work. It's meant for music/videos and different sorts of interactivity. For audio, you require the performance and stability.
 
I wouldn't use it or recommend it, I was just curious what issues are being caused.
 
Hmm, they aren't being extremely helpful there...

You might be out of luck no matter what you choose if you're running Media Edition.
 
I did some research and it appears to be fairly simple to disable the parts of MCE that cause problems with Presonus.
 
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