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Sound:
I expected better from Focusrite. The sound is decent, but that's all I would give it. It sounded a bit muffled/muddy/less clear when I compared it with RME and MOTU. I know those are more expensive units, but the difference seemed more substantial than the price difference, especially considering the I/O feature set is also more limited. I find I have very little headroom to work with overall, except in the mic pres - which are nice. Sounds better than other units in the same price range though, so that's something to consider.
Feature:
Nice Focusrite preamps!!
2 headphone outputs is definitely a helper. However, there are only 4 analog inputs, and there is an ADAT/Optical input but NO OUTPUT! Why??? Only 1 firewire port so don't expect to do any daisychaining.
The Saffire Mix Control software: UNSTABLE. It craps out for no apparent reason mid-session and no response. That's serious. It still pipes the audio to and from the computer, so as long as you set everything before it gets stuck and don't need to change anything, you can keep working.
Input FX and plugin suite: Nice sounding basic plugins.
VRM: Bells and whistles that I still don't really see how that can really be useful, since your room, monitors, and everything else are still no less of factors to your mix. As far as I'm concerned, if the non-DSP version of this unit had 2 headphone outputs, I would have saved the $100 spent on this feature.
Ease of Use:
It's not complicated once you get your head around the Mix Control routing possibilities.
Quality:
Seems like it's built to be able to withstand minor bumps. As long as you carry it in a padded case and take care of it it should be fine. The extra points get lost on the instability of the software and driver. Make sure you don't have many things plugged into the same power source as this unit, because it's doesn't respond well to fluctuations and recessions in the power stream. I would keep at least a surge protector in front of it.
Value:
It's not expensive, and the sound is decent.
Manufacturer Support:
No experience yet, but their website has a database of previous troubleshooting correspondences available to anyone, so that's a good thing.
The Wow Factor:
Much bigger than it needs to be with so few ins and outs, and it's just boxy. I'm happy not to pay extra for cosmetics though.
Overall:
As soon as I can muster up an RME, I'm upgrading. Until then, looks like I'm stuck with this product for a long time so I better learn to work around its limitations. I would gladly trade it in for a MOTU Ultralite - only $150 more and more than $150 better.
I like the mic preamps and the 2 headphone outputs, and the sound is decent. Everything else about it is a disappointment. VRM seems like just a set of preset monitor-only EQ curves put in as filler.
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