Focusrite Saffire Pro 40

It's time to upgrade my interface and a friend of mine recommended the Focusrite Saffire Pro 40.  I want to stay with Firewire. I was originally looking at the Roland Studio Capture but the Focusrite can be had for a lot less money and has all the features I need. Just wondering if anyone here is using one and what your thoughts are.
 
Thanks

Thanks Fireberd. The fact that Focusrite does not have a "factory" repair center is kind of a downer for me. I didn't know that. The octa-capture looks pretty good but has only one headphone output. Not a deal breaker, but I'd rather have 2 outputs from the unit itself. The studio capture is looking better all the time but it's USB. I've had great performance with Sonar on FW. I'm not sure how USB will perform with Sonar on my PC? 
 
Another friend recommended the M-Audio ProFire 2626. Does anyone have any experience with this interface?

Supposedly according to RME you can have up to 100 total channels in USB, or say 50 in and 50 out. If you need anything faster then there is MADI interfaces where you can have up to 394 in and 396 out or something like that.
 
That is all at once. Usually most people probably don't use over 32 channels because all of it has to be hooked up to other equipment and still it all get combined in the end to usually two channels - stereo unless you are working with surround and then you need drivers for surround recording and devices may not even include anything like drivers for that because again most people work in the end in stereo I suppose.
 
That is USB 2 and 3 is not that much considered yet and may not be for audio recordings.
 
 
 

Thanks all for your input. Really appreciate it.
 
mettelus,
 
Reading the comments in the thread you provided restored my faith in the Saffire Pro 40. It looks like the way to go. I was told Firewire is slowly being phased out which might be true but I've used FW for the past few years and Sonar always ran like a champ. No pops, crackles or glitches and hardly any latency issues at all. Pretty much rock-solid performance. I'm not sure I'd get the same level of performance from USB on my system. Not saying FW is better than USB or anything like that. I'm just not sure how it would be on my system. I don't want to break the winning streak I've been on if you know what I mean. The Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 is basically the same interface as the Saffire Pro 40 only it's USB and adds wordclock capability for syncing to external devices. That's something I'll probably never need anyway. Leaning towards the Pro 40. It receives very good reviews everywhere I've checked so far.
 
Thanks again everyone...

I don't know what kind of problems the folks above had but I have been running the pro 40 for a couple years, it is hard monitoring so there is virtually no freaking latency, the pre's are pretty good for the price-point,  and if you/I/we/anyone in this price range is looking at products in this price rage it also means that we haven't been doing this long enough for a pretty decent product like the saffire pro to be the weakest link in our chain.  It is far more likely that the weak link is the inexperienced ears behind the console not the gear running into it.  I have learned that as you climb in experience you start to learn more about what you want from your next equipment purchase.  and even if it is a fairly poor choice purchase... it will carry you until you learn why it was a bad choice, what would be a better one, and then move on.
  The pre's are cool, latency is nonexisitent, and it has 8 analog in's.  Does that fit your needs?  Grab one.  by the time you find any flaws in it, you will have learned it, loved it, thought it mediocre, learned what you want next, and be ready to move on.  BTW, it will probably still be operating fine at that point.

Thanks guys. Great to hear you've both had (or are having) positive experiences with Focusrite. Most of the reviews I read were very good. I can't count how many sites I went to looking for information. I set out looking for an interface that offered at least 8 inputs, is expandable, is stable, and of course has good sound. I did some pretty intensive research and found the Saffire to be a perfect fit. It should be here end of week. Waiting patiently...  

Yeah I expanded mine with a cheaper behringer ada8000 piggybacked in via adat so I have 16 inputs.  Works pretty darn good.

That is awesome! As far as the FW card, the research I did said that basically USB can interfere with the FW; so as long as you do not plug any USB device into that card while using FW, you should be fine.
 
I was similar in that once I nice signals into X3, I began recording... I will learn the rest as I have a need to learn it  The first weekend was a blast.

Geo524
ChuckC, how are the preamps on the ADA8000? Heard good things about that particular mic pre. 16 inputs is something I will be going after in the near future.
 

The ADA8200 is now available. Wondering if anyone here got one already ?

FW was totally new to me, so I did a lot of research on that before I made my order. I only saw Thunderbolt in passing, and did not research that one yet. These units are designed to be expanded and function fine on FW, so Thunderbolt may be overkill (for now anyway).
 
The mic pre-amps are wonderful on the 24. I actually bought my first-ever condenser mic at the same time, and learning to use that properly was an interesting experience unto itself. I found a neat trick that can only work well with good preamps... my voice very strong overtones that the condenser mic picks up "too well," so if I record a condenser and dynamic mic in tandem, I started using R-MIX SONAR to low pass the root notes, and doing the same on the dynamic mic to high pass the overtones. This combination made for a very smooth sound that kept the high end without the "sting" that the condenser mic was giving it.
 
One thing that is sort of "tucked away" in the Mix Control manual, that is important.... When you go into "Input FX->Router," the "Loop Back 1/Loop Back 2" are what is being sent to SONAR. When "Off" they are sending the mix, so if want just the FX they need to be set to FX(Anlg 1/2), and if you want the dry signal they need to be set to Anlg In 1/2.
 
It is easy to spend a lot of time on just the Mix Control panel initially, so once you have mixes set up to your taste, be sure to save your settings.
 

I like the ADA 8000 pres for a lot of things but it depends...  I did a shootout a while back and posted sound samples of a distorted rock guitar, set a 57 in front of a cab and left it there, I played and recorded the same riff through the focusrite, the ada8000, an Art tps II tube pre, and then through my yamaha board then into the computer.  I felt for guitars the Ada took it hands down and most seemed to agree with me But, if you have to turn the pres up a ton for quiet signals they seem a little noisy.  I always run them for distorted rock guitars (loud source) but I wouldn't want to use them for vocals, or say acoustic guitar (quiet source) I also try not to use them on mission critical drums (kick/snare) or any drum track that is going to stay open throughout the song... by that I mean they are fine on toms, etc. because I slip edit the silence between hits anyway... but overheads are in the mix generally from start to finish so they never get tracked on the ADA to avoid any unnecessary hiss/static.   I will eventually upgrade out of this unit, no doubt but It was a cheap way to jump in and learn how to mic a full band.

Excellent!