Customer Reviews

PreSonus FireBox 6X8 Firewire Recording Interface

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is, quite simply, the only FireWire audio interface in this price range I would recommend to anyone, period.

I did a lot of research on the internet before my purchase, and the USB and FireWire audio interfaces from other manufacturers seemed to be plagued with all sorts of problems, from not enough bandwidth, to losing audio sync, to poor driver support, and so on. The similarly priced M-Audio devices didn't even support hot swapping, instead recommending that you turn your computer off before you plug it in or unplug the device, or risk frying your FireWire ports on your computer!

The PreSonus Firebox has none of these problems.

A big problem I've noticed with A/V computer hardware over the years is that the companies who make it are usually AV hardware companies first, and then they have to crank out some sort of sub-optimal drivers to make the thing actually work with the computer. I used to own a video capture card and an audio card (with great A/D converters) that both couldn't work in anything after Windows NT 4, and the video card reqired nothing later than Service Pack 3 (even though SP6 was the final release)!

The Firebox supports Apple's CoreAudio, so if you have a recent Mac, you won't even need to install any drivers at all! A Windows driver is also provided (although if they're like most companies, whenever the product gets discontinued someday it probably won't run on future Windows operating systems).

Construction is sturdy and solid, and the audio circuitry sounds great throughout. All the connections are balanced (most in this price range only have a mix of balanced and unbalanced connections). Also, unlike many other interfaces in this price range, you can use all the ins and outs at 24/96 simultaneously (unlike many other interfaces, where you have to lower the quality to run more simultaneous channels).

By using CoreAudio, PreSonus made a great choice, since they're essentially using a standard driver that Apple provides for free as part of the operating system. Apple will almost certainly continue to support CoreAudio for years to come, regardless of whether the Firebox is still being made down the road.

When I got my Mac, I literally just plugged in the Firebox, turned the Mac on for the first time, and the Firebox became the default audio interface automatically. It was really just as easy as plugging it into the computer. I didn't even need to plug in the power adapter, since it draws its power directly from the computer over the FireWire cable.

Don't buy another FireWire audio interface until you evaluate this one first!

I just wanted to give my feedback. I've owned this Presonus Firebox for just under two years and it's served me well. I have a home recording studio, and use Logic 7 and an Alesis Quadrasynth 8. This is a great way to get started in home audio recording, if you want to set up your little studio. You've got pre-amps, an audio interface, plenty of inputs and outputs, MIDI in/out, and it comes with a software mixer.

The inputs are all good and clean. I'm using an AudioTechnica AT3035 cardiod condenser mic and there's plenty of signal from the mic. I noticed one reviewer gave the Firebox bad marks because he couldn't get his mic signal loud enough, and had to use both gain boosts (there's one on the Firebox and a digital one in the software). I'd reason that this is probably because he's using a dynamic mic that requires a lot of gain, like the classic Shure SM57's. It may be that the Firebox isn't suited for those mic's, but it works perfectly well with condenser mic's like the AT3035 or the Studio Projects B1 (which is half the price; or the same as the Shure SM57). So, I don't see this as a problem with the Firebox itself.

There are a good number of inputs on this baby, and you can get an additional mixer if you need more options, as I just did (got a Behringer--good quality inexpensive mixers. It pairs up well with the Presonus Firebox.) However, I did just fine without a mixer for a long while, and you can do that if you're recording solo most of the time or don't have a lot of equipment (or don't mind switching cables), because of the decent number of inputs and outputs on the Firebox. For the price, I think this is a good product and a good deal, and it's held up against the test of time thus far!

I use Firebox with Mac OS X, so as another reviewer pointed out, it works immediately the moment you plug it in without installing additional drivers. You can hotplug the device whenever you want and it will work.

It is bus powered from FireWire port, so you can bring this wherever you can bring your laptop.

The computer I'm using is an old Powerbook G4 667Mhz with 512MB of ram. It is below advertised system requirement, but it works fine with jackd + Ardour. Recording at low latency (~10ms), 24bits/96khz takes a lot of CPU time, but dropouts only occur when I run out of memory and the system has to do paging. Increasing the latency helps curbing dropouts and CPU usage. Additional memory helps, as well as quitting unneeded applications running in the background to free up memory.

Sound quality is great. A subtle quirk is that volume/gain knobs in the front are step-wise, so don't expect to use these knobs like a mixer because sound-level would change in audible steps. You can download a software mixer from Presonus, but I definitely recommend using it in conjunction with a real mixer if you want that functionality.

The neutrik connectors for mic/instrument input is a great convenience. The 1/4in phone connectors are all balanced TRS, each for single channel only. The circuit automatically detects unbalanced plugs and adjust accordingly. If you want to interface that with RCA connectors, make sure you use TR (also known as "mono" phone) to RCA and not TRS (also known as "stereo" phone) to RCA, because RCA is unbalanced, and TRS confuses the circuit and makes it think it has a balanced signal while there is not.

In theory, you should be able to use the 6 output channels for surround sound when watching DVDs, but I've never gotten it to work.

I bought this interface two week ago after more than one month reading reviews on audio interfaces for my home recording. I would like to add here a very important spec of this interface which can help you decide right which Mic you should use with this interface.

Pros:
- Very sturdy aluminum body, not plastic at all. This feature made me very surprise be cause for a chinese made, under-200$ interface, the all aluminum body is a luxurious feature. I gave it 5 stars for the body design
- Plenty of I/O port. Precisly it has 2 Mic input with integrated Phantom power( which required for condenser mics). This 2 mic inputs can be use for instrument too. And it has more 2 instrument input, one S/PDIF and one MIDI input. Totally it has 6 output for monitoring and one MIDI output and one S/PDIF output. All of this very nice built.
- One very nice headphone output. Very clear and well amplified output to your headphone. I use this with Sony MDR-V6 headphone. Sound is amazing.
- There are 4 knobs as you see from the picture. Two of them to change the gain of the mic preamp, one of them to change main output gain and one for tuning headphone output.
- This box is fully portable. It can work with the power get from the Firewire cable so you donnot need to supply it. However I recommend you use the power adapter when you use it with condenser mic. This will keep the phantom source work well.

All of the above feature I would give 5 stars.

Cons: There is one major problem and one minor problem with this box.
- The major problem: too low mic preamp which makes this box IMPOSSIBLE to work with dynamic mics. The preamp max gain is 45dB and additionally you get more 12 db with software but it will distort your signal, don't use this 12db gain. Here the explanation I got from a forum and I check it right:
Why can't I get enough gain from my FireBox pre's with my SM58?
In order to keep the FireBox in compliance with IEEE 1394 powering standards, the voltage rails were reduced, which resulted in a slightly lower preamp gain than the preamps found in other PreSonus preamps. The FireBox has approximately 45 dB of analogue gain with an additional 12 dB via the boost for a total of 57 dB total gain. This is sufficient for the majority of the FireBox's users' needs. However, in situations where a low output microphone is used, quiet sound source is recorded, or very hot digital signal is required, it is recommended to pick up an external preamp (like the BlueTube DP, Tube Pre, Eureka, ADL 600, etc) and use it through line inputs 3 & 4.

So: don't use this box with a dynamic mics like SHURE SM57, SM58, SM58... except you have a nice (more than 60dB) mic preamp. I did have a big mistake when I ordered SHURE 48 to use with this Firebox , the sound comes to computer is too low to hear.

If you don't have a micpreamp, let consider condenser mics like AKG Perception 120 or RODE ... Because this Firebox equipped with Phantom Power which required for condenser mics so you don not need to pay extra for Phantom power source. I got an AKG 120 and it work greatly.

- The minor problem: This firebox spread out lots of heat. After 30 mins running it body is very hot. And also this does not have On/Off switch which mean you need to unplug it from your computer after working on it.

I have had my Firebox for a while, using it with Windows XP and Mac OS X (Tiger and Leopard) on both an iBook and a Mac Pro (Intel). It's pretty easy to set up and use, and all the functions seem to work fine.

My issue has been with digital noise (high screeching noise, low volume) that seems to be related to the firewire cable. If I connect through my monitor (the Mac's monitor has Firewire and USB connectors that come up through the video cable) the level of that noise makes the card unusable. When I use a single cable, connected to the front of the Mac Pro, the noise is still present, but manageable (I turn up the Firebox and turn down my amp). I have updated the drivers and firmware, but no improvement has been seen.

I use this as my main sound card for the Mac Pro, and for recording with GarageBand and Cubase, along with a synthesizer connected via S/PDIF, and it all seems to work fine except that the S/PDIF interface needs to get its synchronization from the device that's connected (synthesizer in my case), and if you turn off the synthesizer, the Firebox stops working. Of course you can work around this by using an analog connection between the synthesizer and the Firebox, but then you have two additional conversions in the process (digital synth -> synth D/A convertor -> Firebox A/D convertor) with the additional possibility of analog cable noise.

My overall satisfaction with the product is reduced significantly by the digital noise problem, however, and I'll be looking for a higher quality product next time.

Now that I have been able to run the Presonus Firebox through the paces I am starting to not like it. Everything I have done with it so far is all VO work so none of this review is based on instrument recording. There are a few of us that have done VO work through the Firebox and I would rate all of our voices as mid to high on volume. Thus I have not run into any problems with the unit until I recorded someone with a softer voice. I had everything cranked and it still was not enough. Now I have a noisy VO that needs to be redone. Yes, I have spent many, many hours trying to repair the audio and bring the noise down but have come to the conclusion that it will take less time to re-record than to continue to beat the dead horse.

I will not put all the blame on Presonus, the unit comes with a software booster that adds about 12dB and if I crank the levels on the Firebox and record into Soundtrack it becomes useable for a softer voice but still not great. The software gain does ad noise so it is not a great solution.

Since running into this problem I have read a number of other folks out there with similar issues. So if you have a medium to loud voice the Firebox has a very nice warm sound for the money. If you might record someone with a softer voice I would look elsewhere.

Here's the deal with this product: If you're buying a PreSonus Firebox 6x10, you are NOT buying it for a professional recording studio. You can't expect that out of a $200 product. However, what you can expect out of a $200 recording device is exactly what you get from this little beauty.

Sound:
The sound quality is fantastic. It is possible to generate a little bit of popping if the system is really overloaded, but I have found that recording to an external HDD helps with this. There is a tiny bit of background noise in recording, but it is infinitesimally small compared to what you might get with other interfaces under $200 or recording straight to the computer's sound card, or even worse, through an on-board mic. The Firebox really opens up some options to create some good, clean sounds whether you want to record vocals or instruments, and whether you want to record acoustic, through a digital medium, or through an amp. Also, any complaints about volume are either unwarranted or the reviewers simply haven't found the right settings to record at. I have absolutely no problems getting my mics to max out in garageband.

Quality:
The product is sturdy. It is built well to be tough. You could travel with this thing (and I do), and it will hold up due to the sturdy construction. Nothing about this thing feels cheap. It's pretty small, too, so you won't feel like you're hauling around a huge clunker just to get some recording done on the go.

Bottom line:
I don't think you can find anything better for this price range. It's a very good product. You won't have professional artists clamoring to get you to record their productions, but this will do for any small-time band or any person just interested in doing some home recording just for fun and wanting it to sound slightly professionally done.

I'm very disappointed with my FireBox. The gain on the mic preamps is waaaay too low. I found out after I bought it that it only has 35dB of gain on the microphone preamps. This isn't nearly enough, even with very sensitive powered condenser microphones. With ribbons or dynamic mics, the FireBox is totally useless on it's own. It really has to have external mic preamps to be useful.

Presonus provides a 12dB "digital boost", which is a poor band-aid for the inadequate analog gain. The digital boost just throws away 12dB of resolution and dynamic range, and still only brings the signal up to a barely-usable level. I strongly recommend you avoid the 12dB boost feature, as it really degrades the signal.

If you can live with this significant deficiency, the FireBox is a decent audio interface. As other reviewers point out, it is easy to set up and use, especially under Mac OS X. I had it up and running in no time.

****** Update ******

Today I tried recording something through mic input #2. Unfortunately, I get a high-pitched whine / squeal kind of noise. It's not really loud, but it isn't too quiet either. This noise is ruining everything I record through channel 2. Very annoying, and I haven't found a way to get rid of it. When I move the mic back to input #1, the noise pretty much goes away, although if I listen really closely, I can actually hear the same high pitched sound very very faint on that channel too. I just didn't notice it before.

For a dedicated recording device which is supposed to give you good clean recordings, this kind of squeal in everything I record is unacceptable. Maybe I got a dud, but how did this unit make it out of the factory? Presonus or their chinese manufacturer is clearly lacking in the quality control department.

I'm downgrading my two-star rating to one star, and probably sending it back if I can't fix the noise problem. I'm now considering the Focusrite Saffire or Motu Ultralite instead. If you want something in the same price range, Edirol FA-66 is one possibility.

My relationship with my Firebox remains love/hate. When it works, it works very well. I originally got it for use with XP, and it was all around excellent. The preamps could use a little more analog gain (I almost always have the knobs pegged at max), but overall, the recorded sound is very good. Most of the time, I use it as my primary sound card for music and video playback, because the D/A converters sound excellent. Very transparent. It makes most built-in sound cards sound like absolute junk. It also doubles as a small mixer for computer karaoke, since it has two mic inputs, which it combines with the computer sound. When it's not hooked up to a computer, it routes the mic inputs to the Main 1/2 outputs, functioning as a preamp. How cool is that? The headphone knob even goes up to 11, so it's louder than the competition. ;) For the most part, I love this thing.

And then I bought a computer with Vista. When it works, it sounds great. But the WDM drivers for Vista (on my system, anyway) are hosed. After using it for a while, I get this nasty buzzing, echoey distortion. I have to close all my programs, unplug the thing, and then start my programs again. Also, most of the time, when I start up my computer, I run a program, and there's no sound. So I have to close the program, unplug the Firebox, plug it back in, and start the program. Then, it usually works pretty well. And sometimes gets into that buzzing/echoing distortion. I'm not sure if it's the v2.46 firmware or what, but I've uninstalled the drivers at least 10 times, including the "thorough" uninstall that involved deleting registry keys manually. It still has issues. Hopefully they'll be fixed in Windows 7. We'll see. I don't know about Mac, but I'm guessing it works better.

Even with the need to unplug every day and sometimes more often, I still use the thing all the time, because it sounds so good. And I don't have $300 laying around to get a different one. Build quality is pretty good. The thing feels solid. But you might want to wait until Win 7 has been around a while, to make sure the Firebox has made the transition gracefully -- since it doesn't quite jive with Vista (in some cases, anyway).

I've been using the Firebox now for several months. I use it for mobile recording and play back tracks whenever I'm performing live. So far, it has been perfect for my needs. It's solid as a rock as far as the construction. The preamps have no hiss and the headphone amp is WAY louder than I need (which is nice whenever you are recording a drummer). I was worried about not having enough gain on the mic preamps based on another review I read. Well, in the software control panel of the Firebox is a 'Gain Boost' switch that gives you an extra 15dB of boost for lower gain mics.