Presonus FireStation or MOTU 828......?

[Beatheavy]

A friend of mine is looking to take the plunge. He will be using Logic on a Powerbook. I'd like to get some feedback on these two units so that he may make a more informed decision. So, any one with an opinion and real world use of these units please chime in. Thanx :D

[KHAN]

I can't comment on the Firestation, but I have a pair of 828's, and they have been flawless so far. If I were in the market now, I'd be looking hard at the MOTU 896.

[Beatheavy]

Thanx for your reply Khan. I think he would like to stay within the 828 pricerange. Anyone else?

[Nawledge]

i'm looking at these two choices also, one thing that bothers me is that the firestation doesn't support osx yet, maybe i'm mistaken but on their site all they talk about is os9x. if not for that i'm leaning towards at least trying the firestation, the 828 issues are well documented and its had the benefit of alot of people on both mac and pc sides trying it out. I'm planning on getting one of the new powerbooks and its good to know that the 828 is a nice piece to fall back on regarding the mac, but I'm also getting a new desktop and it's based on the amd chip, on paper the firestation looks like a beeeetttteeerrrr choice, mlan, good preamps, stand alone operation features, good drivers, you can always fall back on an 828 if you have to. just make sure you get it from somewhere that you can return it from. anyway, thats my wooden nickels worth.

[Albert]

A friend of mine uses a MOTU 828 with Logic on his laptop and he raves about it, simply loves it. I don't use an 828 myself, but I trust my friends opinion and I'd go with an 828 myself if I needed portability. I believe Presonus is waiting for Apple to complete support for mLan within OSX. Once the native drivers included within OSX are complete, third party drivers will not be necessary to run a Firestation in OSX. At that point it will just be a matter of hooking the unit up to your computer and it will be supported.

[Rog]

He needs to listen to the Metric Halo box, seriously.

[Beatheavy]

Thanx for all your replys guys. I had not noticed to OSX issue. I guess that a serious thing to consider. A couple of questions..... Are the Mic Pre's on the Presonus better than the ones on the 828? How important is M-Lan at this point? Aren't we at least 5 years away from this technology from being across accepted and implemented? The Metric Halo box has a lot going fot it, but I believe it's out of his price range. Thanx for your input guys. I really appreciate it.

[Mark LaCoste]

I'm puzzled about MLAN. My friend wants to add some inputs (with better converters and pres) to his Yammy 4416. I guess you can add an MLAN card to it. So... could he connect the Presonus thing straight into the 4416 or any other mlan device including a DAW? -mark

[RaGe]

My $.02: I was looking at both units too. What I like about the Presonus is that it is also a mixer. For the way I work this would be perfect: I usually play or sequence tracks one by one and then record audio direct into my DAW, or sometimes make performances within the synths (that's where the mixer would be handy). The Presonus MP20 ain't too bad on synths so I believe the FIREStation is kewl too. Nice road/hotel room setup. I know the 828 has a good rep too. Just some thoughts. RaGe

[Sergievsky]

The mixer is the best part in the Firestation. It sounds really good. I have been having some strange things happening lately though, such as the audio not playing right with a Quicktime video playing, and some delays with the ASIO driver. I can't say it's strictly the Firestation, since it was working well before. Maybe it's the stupid demos I installed. Will let y'all know when I find time to clean up my system. Anyway, OSX is coming when Apple release 10.3, or so I was told. In the meantime, it's OS9. I also could not get it to be recognized with a Firewire (oxford911 chip) HD in the Firewire chain. I use DP, and I probably would have (should have?) bought the 828, but the 828 didn't have Word Clock! But if you want less hassle to start, 828 might be better. I also have an AW4416 and use the opticals for transferring...more flexible and less hassle than mLan.

[Jonathan Hughes]

"Are the Mic Pre's on the Presonus better than the ones on the 828?" If the preamps in the Firestation are the same ones as in the Digimax (I believe they are), then the they definitely sounds better (to my ears) than those int he 828. I have an 828 as well as a Digimax (which I send to the 828 via lightpipe) and the Digimax's preamps are definitely a lot cleaner and more transparent than the 828. I suppose this could also have to do with the converters, since I'm bypassing the 828's A-D converter, but I also use a Joe Meek VC6Q through the 828's analog inputs and it also sounds a lot nicer than the 828 preamps. The 828's preamps are by no means bad, but I haven't used them since I got theDigimax and the Joe Meek.

[Joe McDonough]

[quote]Originally posted by Nawledge: [QB]i'm looking at these two choices also, one thing that bothers me is that the firestation doesn't support osx yet, maybe i'm mistaken but on their site all they talk about is os9x. if not for that i'm leaning towards at least trying the firestation, QB][/quote]I recently spoke with Presonus and they confirmed that firestation will support OSX by Q2 this year.

[toastedfunkasaur]

Hey all - has anyone here had any experience setting up the firestation on a windows xp based system? I purchased one thinking I had found a portable replacement for my delta 1010 but I've had nothing but trouble so far.