Focusrite Saffire 6 USB - review

Got a new toy.  I have a Lynx II card but I wanted something I could use with my laptops so after some research I ended up with the Focusrite Saffire 6 USB.
My desktop machine is just a P4 3.2ghz to 2 gig of RAM and I tried it first. The driver CD had version 1.8 on it so I went to the web site and got version 1.9
I installed the driver only and did not load any of the plugins or "lite" version of Live.  Note: There is no DSP mixer so there is no mixer to load, just the driver.
The only software control panel is an app you can launch to set the buffer size (latency) for the driver.

After the install I rebooted and attached the unit. Plug and play did it's thing and USB light lit green.  Good to go. Since I do more editing and mixing then recording now the first thing I wanted to test was the headphone amp.  I compared it to the headphone amp in my SM Pro Audio M-Patch 2. The Focusrite headphone amp does seem to have better detail, dynamic range, and high frequency response. However it began to fatigue the ear very quickly. The M-Patch headphone amp was more like listening to speakers, smooth and natural sounding. Sennheiser HD-595 phones by the way. I also tried ATH-M40fs and the results were the same. Both amps have plenty of gain and no noticeable noise but the Focusrite seems to have more power, deeper bass, and doesn't pop as bad the first time you plug phones in. That's the one thing I hate about the M-Patch 2 amp. I'm not really dissappointed I kinda like the idea of having both types of amps available.

The preamps are as expected Focusrite quality, plenty of gain, and no noise.  Since there is no DSP mixer you set the monitor level with a balance control and have the option of mono on the input side to make the sound go to both ears in the headphones, nice button to have. The playback remains stereo. You simply adjust the balance between playback and the inputs to set your monitor level. Just like on a on a Presonus Firepod.

Converter quality compares very well to the Lynx card. It's limited to 48k max sample rate but can do 24bit. Sound is fantastic for this price rage.

The device is USB bus powered so no wall wart needed ! Phantom power mics work great, no issues. It also runs cool to the touch, even after long use there is NO heat from this device. USB 1.1 and 2.0 both work fine.   Oh, the case is metal, feels and looks solid, all controls (pots and switches) feel high quality also and work well.

That's all for now, seems to be a great value, I expected a fatal flaw of some kind but have found none.  I paid $159.00 total including shipping from a well known vendor on e-bay.

frank great review.very thought out .i too bought this saffire 6 usb about twom months ago i recieved a defected unit.focusrite was abso lutely redicules in determing the unit defective..send email after email asking the same questions over and over.finally i brought it back to guitar center where i do buisiness and they replced the unit.i got the new one and love it..really do.the pre amps are nice and hot..only problem is a bit too hot.its hard to get proper gain staging with the unit even with the -10d.b pad on both channels.i can never turn it past two or three before it clips out my input meters in my daw's.
thus not letting me get the pre amps to full potential to take advantage of theequal  gain to gain processing.though i did find the headphone amp like yourself very modest unlike others as you share.your absolutely correct on that.with a nice balance i can get it load enough to record in almost any inviorment.i find the gain problem i spoke of earlier a little better when using xlr and phantom power.though ive noticed the phantom power is a little touchy.if i speak to load in to the mike and drive it in the red(when adjusting levels for recording.it overload quickly and easily .a simple reset of the switch returns the fun though.all in all i think your review was great.for the price we cant go wrong.i paid 199.99 and i think even at that price it was a good deal compared to some others i kicked the tires on(onynx black jack,presonus audio box)so im happy.i also just orded a v-studio 20 by roland to use as a controler or maybe even both.i had planned on using the focusrite as my soundcard and the vs20 as a controler for faders,transport,exc. but the vs20 is 2.0 the saffire is only 1.1 i want to see what i can get out of both.if not.ill use the vs20 and sell the focusrite to my guitarist who is dying for one.
i really enjoyed your review it was proffesional.thank you.

best thing about the Sapphire 6 is i can run it on the laptop for basic mixing like tidying up takes and for CD Arch and with a pair of balanced room mics you can record live and the  best of all it is rock solid with the net and avg and everything else up and running-a very handy backup tool indeed.