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(More customer reviews)My audio "system" is a Wife's Nightmare: 45 SE tube amp (about 1.5W), a DC Darling SE tube amp (about 0.75W), A 1626 p-p amp (~3 W), and a couple of EL84 P-P amps (Heathkit and Dynaco, about 15W each), plus a SONY TA-2000 "sand" preamp [truly excellent, BTW], a Phonodude tube preamp, a Quad 303 "sand" power amp, and a pair of 2A3 P-P mono-blocks under construction. Plus miscellaneous tuners, tables and assorted junk. Wires literally everywhere.
All this low-wattage stuff drives a pair of Altec A-7 clones (811 horns and University 15" HC woofers with ONLY a 6dB high-pass filter using big PP caps; NO low pass filter, just natural drop-off of the woofers). Speaker efficiency is about 103-106dB/W at one meter, so 1 W is all you really need indoors. You audionuts will also recognize that this also means that I can hear ANYTHING and EVERYTHING (clicks, buzz, hum, thumps, etc) with these speakers, so any coloration from the equipment will show-up in spades.
If you can understand all that audio gibberish, you'll recognize that I am (a) nuts, and (b)probably pretty good with a soldering iron and oscilloscope. Guilty on both counts.
Since my teenagers are iPod fanatics, I discovered that Apple iTunes has a proprietary coding called Apple Lossless, which allows you to rip stuff to a hard-disk in ~half the space of a CD with no loss of audio data. So as a digital music experiment I sprung for a 512Meg 40 Gig Mac Mini and added a CHEAP 200 Gig Seagate external disk. The Mac is tiny and essentially noiseless; seemed perfect for the application.
I got the M-Audio Firewire as a soundcard for the Mac Mini, figuring I could use it with any of our PCs if the Mac experiment didn't work-out. Web reviews seemed uniformly excellent so I didn't think there was much risk.
NOW one side of the giant home-built audio table is digital; MAC Min w/ Seagate 200 G HD, old keyboard and small LCD, and the M-Audio Audiphile Firewire. The M-Audio Audiophile is usually hooked to the Sony TA-2000 preamp BOTH in and out, with the Heavy Iron (vacuum tube stuff) on the lower shelves. We have about 12 DAYS of music in there now. DAYS, I said.
To rip vinyl to the MAC I use ClickRepair and Amadeus programs [both highly recommended and VERY easy to learn]. The Sony allows monitoring with any of the power amps and the ALTEC speakers, or I can use headphones plugged into the SONY OR the Firewire.
To play digital, we just click on the iTunes and switch the Sony to AUX.
This set-up literally allows me to compare computer digital (thru firewire)with CD player (a moderate priced Sansui) with "real" vinyl (currently from Thorens 318 table with various cartridges; not fancy but pretty nice).
The sound from the Firewire is completely colorless, as near as I can tell. That's high praise, coming from a Tube Guy.
Comparing digitized (er, RIPPED) vinyl to REAL vinyl is VERY interesting, as SOMETIMES(e.g. a high quality disc but with bad scratches) the ripped version played through the Firewire is more enjoyable than the "real" thing, as the S/N ratio is way better and much of the vinyl qualities seem to remain, especially if you're conservative with the digital doctoring (leaving-in the minor vinyl glitches, that is).
Some mono vinyl (esp. RCA Shaded Dogs)ripped with this set-up are simply terrific; one Anna Moffo disk of various Arias is a real stand-out with nice crisp upper registers, great depth, and the rustle of sheet music that you can't hear on the "straight" vinyl. The tube stuff and the Altecs probably don't hurt, but I figure that the Firewire's got to be performing very well too for this to happen, doesn't it?
I've had the Firewire for a couple of months, but I am writing the review NOW because the system just passed the ultimate test this evening; when I came home from work, the wife had powered-up the system herself (this alone requires a BSEE, a wiring diagram, and a flashlight. Rubber boots are a nice accessory, too)and was playing Ritchie Havens' "Here Comes The Sun" at full volume. Wow. Woodstock III (or whatever number we Boomers are up to now) right in the driveway. Very cool. Rock on, Garth.
Buy one. Only a few more $ than a good internal card, but works with any computer with a 1394 Firewire connection. Looks terrific, nice rugged construction (almost tube-worthy). Easy to install (warning labels ARE a little much, though), and once installed, just sits there and works great.
Gotta go play some ripped vinyl.
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The M Audio FireWire Audiophile is a compact, FireWire-compatible audio-MIDI interface that takes the legacy of M-Audio s award-winning Audiophile line to the next level. 4 x 6 audio I/O combines with powerful on-board mixing in a mobile package that s perfect for live performance, home recording, and digital DJ work. Stereo headphone output with A/B switching between assignable sources allows precuing for DJs and mobile musicians - and the assignable aux bus is perfect for creating dedicated headphone mixes and effect sends.You also get zero-latency hardware direct monitoring, ultra-low latency ASIO softw
Click here for more information about M-Audio FireWire Audiophile Digital Audio Interface
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