eric_peterson

patm300e
Firewire is what worried me

For me it's USB that worries me because I've never had a USB based device that was reliable. I'm forever unplugging/re-plugging to get them kick-started after they go offline, this even after I've set the power options so they don't fall asleep, and then they also get enumerated differently for each port on your PC, etc.  FW is full duplex and USB is half-duplex unless you are talking USB-3, so it can send audio in/out simultaneously. 
 
The first thing I did was upgrade the X32 I/O to the Firewire/USB option card because Firewire streaming has never let me down. It may have been an unnecessary step/expense, but it gives me piece of mind, so, whatever ...

I guess mileage varies - I have not had a single problem since changing from firewire Yamaha desks to Usb RME UFX and Usb X32 18 months ago. Firewire on the Yamaha's was very pedantic. I do not miss tracking down TI firewire chips at all:)

How long is your cable? The FireWire cable I stuck in my band's cable snake 6 years ago is 25' long to give us flexibility for stage layout. I have to admit that pulling off the braided cable wrap and shrink tubing to stick in a 25' long USB cable that might flake out was another reason I stuck with FW.

It sounds like the X32 USB drivers must be solid, good to know!

eric_peterson
How long is your cable? The FireWire cable I stuck in my band's cable snake 6 years ago is 25' long to give us flexibility for stage layout. I have to admit that pulling off the braided cable wrap and shrink tubing to stick in a 25' long USB cable that might flake out was another reason I stuck with FW.

It sounds like the X32 USB drivers must be solid, good to know!

Yeah good call - no way could you run a 25ft USB cable to the x32 without an active booster. 5m is about Max. My x32 stage rack is right next to my pc, so my cable is a meagre 2m. When I use the X32 Rack in the studio I run 4m without a problem. I have tried 6m but rerturned errors.
 
The drivers are very solid. The Xusb driver is completely different to the Xuf USB driver though, as you probably know. I used an x32 Compact via usb with the uxf card for abot 2 weeks when I was given a demo X32 to use prior to purchasing mine and it worked fine, though my experience is mostly with the Xusb card. I believe the Xuf card is to be discontinued due to the chip no longer being manufactured, so you got in at the right time if you need FireWire. Usb, Madi and adat are all continuing. There are rumours of a usb3 card, but Behringer products tend to often be rumours for a very long time!