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| | Product Details | | Product Length: | 12.5 inches | | Product Width: | 8.0 inches | | Product Height: | 4.5 inches | | Product Weight: | 4.63 pounds | | Package Length: | 12.5 inches | | Package Width: | 7.7 inches | | Package Height: | 4.4 inches | | Package Weight: | 3.7 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 41 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 41 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
62 of 64 found the following review helpful:
 Best FireWire interface for the money! Dec 18, 2005
By Nathan
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!
15 of 15 found the following review helpful:
Good value -- quality product for home recording Mar 16, 2008
By Nessander
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!
14 of 14 found the following review helpful:
Great audio interface for solo musicians! Mar 17, 2007
By pikine
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.
11 of 11 found the following review helpful:
Very nice Audio Interface but with very low preamp Aug 28, 2009
By R. Le
"DAW engineer"
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.
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 Some digital noise, sensitive to setup Jun 21, 2008
By T. J. Barnes
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.
See all 41 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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