M-Audio FireWire 410

The M-Audio FireWire 410 has fantastic sound, cheap price, not too difficult to set up. Makes a great Audiophile Firewire DAC. I purchased this soley as a much less expensive Audiophile Firewire DAC alternative to the Pro version of the Weiss Firewire DAC which costs $3,000. My expectaions were low, but I was very pleasantly surprised at the fantastic sound quality, great bass output, and amazing dynamic range I could now here.

Not only were standard 44.1 hHz files played against a much cleaner background (virtually no noise), but I could not properly listen to my Audiophle 24-bit 96 kHz and 24-bit 176.4 kHz files as clearly as I have heard them on systems costing over 20 times as much. I am blown away by the great sound quality when using this product as an Audiophile DAC.

Set up was a little convoluted, and since I had to go to thie unit via my primary 4-connector Firewire connection, I had to use the external power supply. Why oh why does that blinking blue light when the unit is turned off have to be so damn bright. I have had to place about four small squares of masking tape over the light so that it will not keep me away with its bright, flashing intensity. Please, M-Audio, make this light dimmer.

Likes to be turned on at the same time or before you start your computer. Do not try to access anything via your USB port (other than keyboard and mouse) while this is working or everything will come to a halt. Do not touch the Firewire cable during operation or you may have to reboot. And I hate that very bright flashing blue light when the unit is turned off, but is powered by the external power source.

Overall, for this purpose, I can most highly recommend the M-Audio Firewire 410 as a great buy with great sound. In fact I can't stop going thrugh my collection of music. It sounds so much better now.

Good entry level recording interface. Firewire minimizes latency. physical inputs (analog) are neutrik and are high quality, Front mounting of analog inputs is nice but I'd also like the ability fo have them come in from the back too. Dual headphone inputs with analog controls from the front panel is nice. Great control over the different inputs and outputs. Like the unit in general.

Overall this is a great piece of equipment for the intended purpose with a few caveats. Turn your speakers off before you power the thing on or perform a cold restart on your computer and you don't have to worry about blowing your tweets. Set you S/PDIF on optical and RCA a different rates and all will work.

By the way - I have had 8 months experience with the unit and am running it on vista 32bit. The new drivers released on 6/27/2008 fixed some of the instability issues.