I would like to use the USB option with a windows laptop (not yet purchased).    I'm running X3P.  
I have heard it's a great interface, but that it is unstable on windows.
 
I  would appreciate any advice from those who have tried it.
 
james

I got mine at the end of March, and the reason I wait for so long was because I ask Orion and at Gearslutz to see how the driver is on Win 7 64 bit. Main question is can I play soft synth without latency.
Nobody gave an answer so I bought it anyway.  Thinking that if it does not work, I would then return it.
Turn out that the newest driver is very, very good.
They have Min Latency, Low and Standard, and some more.
I put mine on Low, no Minimum, and I go to 128 samples, and was able to play soft synth while all other tracks are playing. RTLatency is around 5 ms.
So it works very well. They were having problem with their drivers on both PC and Mac sides. But they solved it with the latest driver.
AD and DA are very good.
First time in my life, that what I hear coming out of my speaker monitors, is the same thing after I burn it to CD and play in different cars. Plenty of bass, and the high is smooth.
It was a good decision to get the Orion 32, for me at least, the best in the last 2 years of buying gears.
dan
 
 

Thanks,
I have two more questions for clarification:
 
Do you use it with a laptop?
Do you use it via usb?
 
I will be working out of a new studio and that is the hardware they have.  I could bring my own, but I'd prefer to just plug into theirs.

Over at Gearsluts, lots of people were complaining about the driver not working with USB, I mean a lot of complaints on both sides, Mac and PC. And get this, most of the issues are from Mac users. Lol.
So in the beginning, a lot of people who work in big studios were using the Orion 32 via Madi.  Perhaps they already have the card, and some fork out $1700 for the RME Madi card, or less than $1000 for the SSL Madi card.  But the majority were buying or using the RME card, because of their low latency.
This is the main reason I waited and waited.  There is no way that I would spend $3000 for the Orion 32, not counting another $1000 for cables, since they use d-sub cables, and you would need a minimum of 6 at $150 a piece to work with the Orion 32, and spend another $1700 for the RME card. The card would be then like 50% of the cost of the Orion 32.
To answer your question, I use it via USB, and I still get that incredible latency as I said earlier in my post above.
If you use it with a laptop, make sure you have a fast one. But I think you should be fine.
The reason the Orion 32 works so well with USB is that Antelope desinged the chip themselves for the driver, but someone else wrote the driver for them. And the company that wrote the driver is a top notch company in Europe.  But it is the chip that makes the whole thing works well over USB with such high track counts.
I myself was very surprised about how well it works over USB with such high track counts. They did it. You only see this with Antelope and RME so far, I think. Remember again that this is not merely a 8 channel box.
dan
 
 

Precisely what I had discovered (from gearslutz etc.)  And- the studio I am moving to DOES use the MADI card for the reason you described.  I haven't bought the laptop yet- I'll spare no expense.  If you have any suggestions regarding the laptop specs- speak up. 
 
I may end up using their computer (they offered), but there is something nice about maintaining your own (making sure it has all the right plugs, etc).  
 
Does this chip they designed utilize usb 3?   Is that how they did it?

Hi BlixYZ,
I'm one of those studios that uses an Orion32 with an RME MADI card, but I've used it a bit via USB. It's not USB3, but in the limited use via USB that I've tried it seems to work just fine. Not sure what the chip is or what magic it employs, but it does seem to work.
 
FWIW, I decided on the MADI card for a few reasons, some of which may be important to you as well:
1. It allows me to also use my Lynx Aurora 16
2. The RME MADI card has built in DSP fx
3. Most importantly, while the Orion is capable and sounds great, it has very limited routing options. It is impossible to create multiple headphone mixes using the built in mix software.
 
Good luck
Dean

Hi Blix, get the fastest laptop and minimum 8 GIG Ram.
Razorwit, Antelope is working very hard on those headphone submixes, very soon.
Yes, no USB 3 like RW said.  But the chip that they built themselves is very powerful. That's how they got the Orion to play with so many channels over USB 2.
dan
 
 

great tip about the routing/headphone mixes.  
Thanks to all of you for the info.