M-Audio FW-410 and WDM Drivers

Hi all,
I finally upgraded from ProAudio9 to Sonar 4PE and I find I need to buy a new soundcard. I'm having a hell of a time. Lots of options, little accurate information. I was looking at the Presonus Firebox, but I was told that it works better with ASIO drivers. Infact, I was told that firewire technology works better with ASIO. Well, I'd prefer to work with WDM drivers, and I'm looking for actual experiences or opinions from people better informed then I. On the otherhand, I really haven't found a PCI with external A/D converters that has mic pre's and midi around the same price, but there might be...and do I want to go down that road? And what about USB...don't know if I even want to go there. Thanks in advance.

Tom

Another thing to consider is the levels of the ins and outs. Ideally, a device (like the MOTU 828mkII) lets you choose -10 or +4 for each and every in and out (Man, I wish I could have gotten that 828 to work with my laptop...). Other devices a little lower down the food chain have one or the other, or maybe some of each. The M-Audio stuff seems to be -10 levels (and unbalanced). The Edirol stuff (the FA101, the UA25) are +4, balanced. The Firepod and Firebox are +4, balanced. The newly announced Edirol FA66, on the other hand, has two +4 balanced ins and two -10, unbalanced RCA ins.

The reason why this is important... If your synths, effects, etc are -10, you'll get better results (better performance, lower noise levels, etc) if you plug them into -10 inputs. When I was testing the 828, I could set the levels appropriately and everything was great. With my new FA101, sound from my synths directly into the FA101 sound poor because of the level mismatch. So the extra ins do me less good than they did with the 828. Once I put my mixer back into the equation (+4 balanced ins and outs for the buses), I could work properly. (Also, the 828 can function as a mixer, so you can set your levels more carefully. With the FA101, you can set the levels for the two front inputs and two of the back inputs - the others are at the mercy of whatever volume your synth is capable of outputting. So mixer/router capability can be important. The Firebox has it, the Firepod does not. The Firewire 410 has it, the FA101 and FA66 do not.)

You really need to consider the equipment you have and the equipment you want to use in the future when you decide which audio interface to hunker down with.

[Implicit in this is a strong recommendation for the MOTU 828mkII IF you can use XP SP1 until (and if) the SP2 problems are worked out. And there are users that will assure you that the 828 works fine with SP2, but on Monday of this week (after I bought an 828 on Sunday and couldn't get it to work right), MOTU Tech Support assured me that SP2 is a major problem for their equipment and that their stance at this point is that they can't do anything else with their drivers and that they are going to wait and see what Microsoft does with SP2. My version of Windows came with SP2. I'm actually mourning the loss of the 828 and the replacement - an FA101, is much more limited than I would have guessed.]