jruckaudio Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 usually, I hear apogee, or motu, but i've had terrible luck with both of them. on my 2nd apogee and its not receiving input, on my 4th motu (3 828 mkii and 1 896hd) and i refuse to spend any more money on those brands, because they seem to all fail within a year.(details below if anyone cares!) so what interface can i buy that will not fail! preferably under $500, hopefully cheaper than that, as I only need a solid xlr input with phantom, and some solid balanced outs for my monitors. I've been looking at focusrite, any thoughts on their cheaper stuff? or am i doomed to a crappy interface unless i spend more than $xxxx thanks! my first apogee one had issues with the built in mic, every time you would touch it, there would be a ton of static introduced on the output and i narrowed it down to the built in mic. the second apogee refuses to take any external input unless you put pressure inwards on the breakout. each time i have to pay around 140 to get those replaced! the motu 896hd stopped outputting through the main outs after 2 years in a rack. the first 828 had the lcd stop lighting up, $100 and a replacement, now the replacement stopped powering up after a year, now on my third, its having the same boot issue (widespread it seems) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webstersp Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 RME babyface all the way if you can go a bit higher than 500$ or find a used one on ebay! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triplets Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 For 299 you can get the Presonus Firestudio Mobile. What are you input and output needs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jruckaudio Posted July 10, 2012 Author Share Posted July 10, 2012 That RME looks awesome but a bit over my budget! if someone wants to trade one for a broken motu and apogee one let me know! I only need 1 or 2 in and stereo out anything else is just bonus! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xpander Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 I totally agree with triplets. The PreSonus is on sale at Sweetwater for only $249 : http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/FireStuMobile/ Keep in mind that this unit uses a FireWire connection. If you don't mind using USB, then either an interface by PreSonus or Focusrite will suit you well. Good luck. - xpander Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jruckaudio Posted July 10, 2012 Author Share Posted July 10, 2012 thanks for the input, Its looking like either presonus or focusrite, I might go with the focusrite because its exactly what i need (and the same price I was about to spend to get the motu repaired). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Jackson Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 The FireStudio Mobile is definitely a great choice for the money. I've been using the Presonus Firebox (FireStudio Mobiles predecessor) for over 4 years with excellent results. It works very nicely with Logic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jruckaudio Posted July 11, 2012 Author Share Posted July 11, 2012 first of all, thanks everyone for your input! I narrowed it down to focusrite and presonus, and I ended up with the focusrite scarlett 2i2. Ive been testing it out for about an hour now and i can say the pre's are miles better than the motu and considerably better than the apogee one. the outputs sound a little cleaner than both at high gain. for the price i couldnt pass it up for $150. So far my only issue is no software control of the volume (via the keyboard) but other than that I am very happy with my purchase so far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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