M-Audio Firewire Audiophile upgrade to Tascam US 16-08

I have the US-16x08. For USB 2 v 3, I'll use the US-20x20 as an example of the latter.
 
To your main questions, I have found the US-16x08 to be a really solid interface. It's much easier to find on sale (I got mine from MF on a Stupid Deal for $200, but any price under $250 would be excellent) now that the US-20x20 is shipping.
 
So why switch? Is your current i/f lacking in some way, or are you just considering a general upgrade/personal Xmas present? Whatever, here are a couple of things to support upgrading to the Tascam i/f:
 
1) Tascam is now developing and supporting drivers in-house, with the US-NxN series being developed internally from scratch. I'm sure you've seen plenty of posts on a variety of forums (fora? ) about audio interface driver issues. The Win10 driver for the US-16x08 has been very stable for me (although we all had to wait 5-6 weeks after the release of Win10 for working drivers) as of v1.03. v1.04 is current. I'm recording using the smallest buffer sample size possible (64) with no glitching.
 
2) Great hardware. Quiet mic pres with plenty of headroom. Split phantom power (Mic Ins 1-4 and 5-8). Selectable Line Input levels for the 11-12, 13-14, and 15-16 inputs. Defaults to an 8-input mic pre (feeding direct to the 8 Line outs) when no USB connection present. 2 switchable line/instrument inputs on the front panel. The only thing I wish it had was a second headphone amp. I have no need of ADAT or S/PDIF expansion, so no need to add that complexity and cost. Oh. One little thing I just LOVE is that the Line outs are "buffered" on power up/down. They don't pop my powered monitors if I forget to power them off/on in the proper sequence.
 
3) USB 2 is stable, and works well on most PCs and laptops today. It's also sufficient to handle the bandwidth requirements of the US-16x08. I have no desire to sample above 96 KHz, so 192 KHz support and the significant additional bandwidth required is waste to me. Look at the US-20x20 specs and see what you lose, i/o wise, when you sample at 192 KHz. I don't get it.
 
4) The US-16x08 is rack mountable in a 1U space. If you wind up using all of those inputs in a recording session, you're likely to have multiple musicians wearing headphones. I'm going to add a 1U Rane headphone amp to my kit at some point, and will stick it and the US-16x08 in a 2U Gator Pro portable rack.
 
USB 3 is an evolving spec. New physical connector. New cable. New hardware. New drivers. And Intel is now shipping CPU chip sets with native Thunderbolt 3 support (Alienware is already shipping a laptop with Thunderbolt 3 support; waiting on Windows and app support now).
 
So, USB 2 strikes me a the "state of the present" vs. USB 3 "state of the art." Your sensitivity to the pain associated with bleeding edge tech will be a good guide.

patm300e
+1 for the Rane Headphone amp.  I have one I got used on ebay a few years back.  I love the thing except it has a HUGE transformer in the middle of the cord and a strange connector on the Rane side of the plug.  Other than the weird plug thing, I really like this headphone amp.

Some good info on why that transformer is there:
 
http://www.rane.com/note110.html

Though I haven't used the M-audio or that model of TASCAM, all the new TASCAM N x N hardware is pretty much the same, as I understand it, and the 20x20 sounds pretty darn good.  A definite step up in AD from my TC 48, which is simply older hardware.  No so much you just have to have it, but it is there.  You can hear a difference with the TASCAM UH-7000, but that is a different beast

A good argument to shop!
 
2) Great hardware. Quiet mic pres with plenty of headroom. Split phantom power (Mic Ins 1-4 and 5-8). Selectable Line Input levels for the 11-12, 13-14, and 15-16 inputs. Defaults to an 8-input mic pre (feeding direct to the 8 Line outs) when no USB connection present. 2 switchable line/instrument inputs on the front panel. The only thing I wish it had was a second headphone amp. I have no need of ADAT or S/PDIF expansion, so no need to add that complexity and cost. Oh. One little thing I just LOVE is that the Line outs are "buffered" on power up/down. They don't pop my powered monitors if I forget to power them off/on in the proper sequence.
 

Just out of curiosity, can you use matching transformers to get 16 XLR inputs on the 1608?
That would be nice!

patm300e
Just out of curiosity, can you use matching transformers to get 16 XLR inputs on the 1608?
That would be nice!

Line Inputs 11-16 are switchable (in pairs) between -10 dBV and +4 dBu. Line Inputs 9 and 10 are switchable between +4 dBu (Line) and -42 dBu (Instrument). Assuming those inexpensive Hosa matching transformers provide a standard line level output (I can't find any specs, one way or the other), you should be able to handle 16 XLR inputs.
 
But...no mic pres on 9-16, so I don't know what that buys you. If all you're doing is converting one connector to another, with both at the same level, you don't need a transformer. If you're wanting to plug a mic into it...well, that doesn't sound like too good of an idea to me. Unless I'm recording to 8-bit cassette tape.

patm300e
Well, I found the answer to 16 channels on Tascam's site:
http://tascam.com/product/us-16x08/getting_started/
 
This guy uses two of them...

One as an ASIO interface and one as an 8 channel mic pre (no USB) feeding Line Inputs 9-16. Yup. You can see the two cables routed through a hole beneath the 2 interfaces for Inputs 9 and 10. About $30/mic pre. Not bad. And all in a 1U case.

azslow3
My M-audio Audiophile FW has two nice features I like:
a) mixer, so I can get sound throw it from windows applications while it is in ASIO mode (running Sonar)
b) output and headphone volumes are controllable from software and hardware (controls on device are encoders, not finite knobs)
 
Looking at Tascam units pictures knobs look finite for me. Am I wrong assuming Tascam interfaces do not have these 2 features?

Re b): They are finite knobs. The mains and headphones volume controls are separate, though.
 
Re a): I am currently using the US-16x08 as my Windows sound card. All others have been uninstalled (if possible) or disabled. I have NOT put any effort into trying to get audio from another source when I have a DAW or standalone VI loaded that uses ASIO. That would certainly be desirable; for example, it would be nice to be able to play a YouTube training video while having SONAR or a VI running. So, at this point, I can't say whether or not it is possible. I do know that it's NOT as simple as changing the routing via the Output tab in the Settings app.

azslow3

TheMaartian

azslow3
My M-audio Audiophile FW has two nice features I like:
a) mixer, so I can get sound throw it from windows applications while it is in ASIO mode (running Sonar)
b) output and headphone volumes are controllable from software and hardware (controls on device are encoders, not finite knobs)
 
Looking at Tascam units pictures knobs look finite for me. Am I wrong assuming Tascam interfaces do not have these 2 features?

Re b): They are finite knobs. The mains and headphones volume controls are separate, though.

Thank you for the confirmation. That means it has no software controllable mixer (unlike Audiophile)

I chose not to include the following because I don't think this will do what you want, but on the off chance...
 
Mixer

 
Output Setting (default)

 
Output Setting (alternate routing; not sure it will do what you want)

Like I said, I didn't expect it to be your answer. I just wanted to be complete. Your response was a very useful contribution. Thanks for taking the time.