FIreface 800 or Rosetta 800?

Hi- I'm embarking on a complete upgrade of my DAW, which I'll be using for electronic music production (going from Logic 4.8.1 to 7 finally!), and I'm trying to decide whether to shell out the big bucks for the Rosetta 800. The questions are:

 

1. I'll be converting analog signals from an Avalon SP737 (mostly vocals, occasional acoustic guitar or percussion), an Eventide H300 effects unit, an Access Virus C, and maybe the odd guitar amp. Do these type of inputs justify the converters on a Rosetta 800?

 

2. I've heard from a few tech support guys that the Fireface has rock solid drivers. Are the Apogee drivers known to be good or not-so-good?

 

Thanks!

You realize you are comparing a $1,300 interface with a $2,700 one that needs an extra $360 card?

 

The Fireface is a 28 i/o with incredible flexibility and options.

The Apogee is a 8 i/o.

 

I have never used or heard the Apogee.

 

I have extensive experience with the Fireface. The Fireface is an amazing piece of technology! Drivers are rock solid, converters are first - grade, you get some mic preamps, a DI with disto and speaker simulator, a headphone out with level, phantom power, flash total recall of the settings, unlimited mix and submixes presets, loopback to record your busses/outputs back into Logic....

 

Doesn't your eventide have digital out? That would make the use of an A/D unnecessary with that one.

I'm deciding between the Fireface800 and the Apogee Mini Me or Rosetta 200. Do you happen to know if the Rosetta, with the firewire card, will work as a sound card similar to the Firewface, or any other common firewire interface? I can't seem to find out wether or not you can "direct monitor" through the Apogee + firewire. Let me know how it goes, please.

David, thanks for your reply. Yes, I know that the Apogee is much more expensive than the Fireface, and I've heard really good things about the Fireface. Let me explain with an analogy: For a couple years I recorded vocals on an Equitek E-100 through an Avalon 737SP - then I got a Soundelux U99 mic, which costs a lot more than the Equitek did, but the resulting improvement in sound quality was dramatic. Basically, if the Apogee sounds a lot better and will work with Core Audio with no problems, then I would go with it, because I don't need a ton of inputs. I would love to hear feedback from anyone who may have had the opportunity to compare the Rosetta 800 with the Fireface 800, and/or if you have any other perspective David, given what I've written here, I would love to hear it. Thanks very much!

I've compared both and of course the Apogee sounds better. However there is the price difference. Anyone who has ever used apogee knows it to be a high end card that high end studios use, so if this is what your looking for and you have the extra money to spend then go apogee. It may have just been the system I was on but I used an RME fireface and when it was clean it sounded great but I had tons of latency issues with it and we tried it both on PC and Mac so maybe it us but we plugged a Motu 828 in for a quick solution and instantly all of our problems wnet away. If anyone is using The RME with no problems please reply to this I lov the card it would love tostart using it.

I've installed many RME Fireface in several studios in LA with no problems. Please start another thread about that problem of yours and I'll help you out!