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

I had a Saffire Pro 40. I liked it but it had several hardware problems and finally died out of warranty.  Focusrite does not have a "factory" repair center.  Everything is handled by 3rd party repair facilities.   The 3rd party repair company that does Focusrite warranty work gave me an estimate to repair it ($200 for two hour minimum labor charge and $200 for a replacement main board) plus shipping.  I only paid $445 for it new so it was canned. 
 
The Saffire Pro 40 needs a T.I. firewire chipset interface in the PC.  I tried several others and it would not work, only with the T.I. Chipset. 
 
As the Saffire Pro 40 is a "mature" product, if you want firewire look at some of the newer products. 
 
I went with USB, after the Saffire Pro 40, and it has been much better and lower latency.  The lowest I could get with the Saffire Pro 40 was about 12ms.  I'm getting a little under 6ms with the Roland Octa-Capture.   

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?

 
Check out this review. It was written about the forte interface, but several audio interfaces were included in the comparisons, so that's how I viewed the article. The charts include some interesting test results for several units that may help give you more info about various interfaces. After months of research I ended up with the Impact Twin from TC Elec. Very happy with that purchase.
 
http://en.audiofanzine.com/external-audio-interface/focusrite/forte/editorial/reviews/be-forte.html

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.
 
 
 

I just bought the Saffire PRO 24 DSP based on this thread. I realize I threw it in the "wrong" forum, but I got a lot of helpful replies and it was a quantum leap in audio interface for me. Most of the comments will also apply to the Saffire PRO 40.

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...

Hey Folks,
 
I decided to get the Saffire Pro 40. Aside from it having all the features I need within my price range most of the reviews I've read were all positive. Especially with regards to the mic preamps. Focusrite support is stellar too from what I'm seeing.
 
Thanks again for your input.

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.

I've been running an older Saffire Pro 26 since 2007 totally without issue.
 
They do make some great gear.