M-Audio Firewire 1814 User Reviews at zZounds

M-Audio Firewire 1814 Customer Review submitted March 4, 2008

By a customer from gmail.com

Overall

Sound

Features

Ease of Use

Quality

Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: musician, recording engineer

Music Style: acoustic, rock, punk, etc.

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VERIFIED BUYER

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Sound: The quality is great, but I use an octopre through adat on this machine. It passes the sound through great. :) Feature: It's got some great features, including two separate headphone mixes, several inputs and outputs, drivers for most systems, etc. Ease of Use: I had been using a G4 with a digi001 and needed something for my laptop so I could do some live recordings if I needed to. It took me about a month to finally understand how this thing worked. I had my adat setting wrong and I was getting all kinds of clicks and pops. It's fine now though. I should have just listened to the troubleshooting. Quality: I got this used, but it was still in good quality. It's a metal box with cheaper knobs. I don't plan on throwing this thing around, and most of the time it's sitting on my desk. Value: I had been looking at getting a digi002, but I just couldn't afford it. I picked this up for half the price of a new one. It's given me everything I need for recording. Manufacturer Support: They've got a great FAQ and other troubleshooting help on their website. Sometimes setting everything up can be difficult and they seem to know how to fix it all. The Wow Factor: I NEED it for my job. Overall: It's a good machine. It uses pro tools, which is what I know. I'm not willing to use any other software. For the price and for the features, this thing is the best.

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"I love these beasts!!" submitted December 2, 2005

By a customer from kania.com.au

Overall

Sound

Features

Quality

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: Drummer for 'Kania', Owner of 'Valtari Music' Mobile Recording Studio

Music Style: Metal!! ,Rock, hard rock- anything with a solid 'hard' beat really.

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Sound: I have found the FW 1814's sound easily out does my brothers 002- Simply unreal vocal and guitar tracks with the great pre's; My main highlight. Feature: You want it, its there (so far, for myself anyway)- Barring a couple more pre amps its near spot on. Quality: Sturdy construction, Zero problems so far. The Wow Factor: Everyone I have shown wants one- that tells me something when these people already have gear of random brands (Digi, Tascam) Overall: Barring the Project I/O, which is only a control surface version of the 1814 (just about) Ill stick with this for a long while id say.

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"Its worth it as long as you read the instructions!" submitted April 6, 2007

By a customer from gmail.com

Overall

Sound

Features

Ease of Use

Quality

Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: Active Musician

Music Style: Jazz, Hip Hop, Techno, House

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Sound: The sound quality is so good, from the unbalanced inputs and the outputs and the s/pdif. You can't go wrong with it, before I bought the unit I did alot of research on it and It seems to me like the people having serious problems either a) don't have systems that can handle the machine, b) Did not read the instructions, or clearly are making mistakes with their daw of choice etc. If you have a basic knowledge of how to eq or mix you will be set!!!! Feature: The product came with a firewire and usb 2.0 cord, but they're very short. I would say if your not going to use this with a laptop that you should go out and buy some longer cables. It also came with a demo of Pro tools m powered and a version of Ableton called "lite". I didn't really have a use for them because I already use Adobe Audition and sometimes PT mpowered. The most useful feature to me is that unit is powered from your computer if your using a 6 pin to 6 pin firewire cable (if you use 4 pin to 6 pin firewire then you have to use the adapter that comes with it). I own both a PC and G4 Powerbook and i've gotten pretty good results using both. I just think sometimes the mixer setup can be a little disjointing but other than that its all good. Ease of Use: Very easy to use, what you put in you get back. THE MANUAL is very clear to read and it makes thing very obvious. The one thing it emphasizes the most is hotplugging. IF you hotplug the unit you have a chance of either destroying the unit (making it inoperable) or making your firewire port inoperable. Quality: The knobs do feel a little cheap but it is a nice model, very utilitarian in its design. the only thing I wish is that all the inputs were balanced instead of unbalanced but its okay. Value: Yes I think its very much worth it, especially if your just getting into learning how to record. M-audio has a good selection of models. Manufacturer Support: I haven't had to use support yet! but from what I understand they're pretty good The Wow Factor: Well like I said it has a very utilitarian look to it, people ask me wtf is that? It was a very practical addition to my setup plus I can take it with me places (although I don't). Overall: I will be using this for awhile, truthfully I would like to upgrade to an RME interface in the future, or maybe even the new Digi003 (or even that tascam control surface interface) but I'm good for right now.

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"Bad Reviewers: If your system is unstable and you have bad quality cables, well of course the 1814 wont perform as expected..!!" submitted April 2, 2007

By a customer from rocketmail.com

Overall

Sound

Features

Ease of Use

Quality

Value

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The Wow Factor

Musical Background: Hobby musician, turntablist

Music Style: Latin Funk, contemporary rockish classical and modern jazzy disco funk

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SPOTLIGHT REVIEW

Sound: Most of the bad reviews before is mostly because of unstable systems. I run a very stable dual core system, 2GB's of RAM and raid SATA drives. The 1814 is flawless and runs perfect with no sound imperfections. Also, I use shielded cables for all my audio. So I avoid a lot of noise thanks to high quality cabling. Feature: I wish it has the same number of outputs as well as inputs. But nevertheless, you can always chain another 1814 or just get an ADAT to expand the I/O to 8 more (Alesis AI-3, or the Behringer ADA8000). Other than that, the firewire maudio control panel is not very difficult. I find it a lot easier than the interface my audiophile 2496 had. Ease of Use: Took it out of the box, installed it, fired Nuendo and voila! I was cooking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Quality: Great quality, I run mics, guitar, line-ins and even turntables into this card and so far they sound great. Again I stress, use good quality cables and make sure you have a stable system. M-Audio drivers are not bad, the card is a true working horse. Reason for the bad reviews below is because they are not doing something right. I don't usually have any serious trouble with any m-audio products and when I do, it's because windows is screwing something up. So if you know your work around windows too, then you should be able to squeeze some good juice out of this card. (hint: Tweak your windows for music workstation purposes, lots of stuff on the internet for this). ELSE GET A MAC and or learn how to get your PC on the ball!! Value: cheap, this card was very affordable and I was considering getting another. Manufacturer Support: Never called them because why? never had a problem :P The Wow Factor: It looks great, every time I have a guest come in, they instantly eye the 1814. I love how it boots with the flashy lights, it makes me really happy. Overall: I would never replace it, not until way way later into the future, as long as there is continued support of the product for future OS. So far there are no Vista drivers available, but maudio is definetly working on it. I dont have the need to upgrade yet anyway, but down the road, I most likely will. As soon as the vista drivers come out, I will probably upgrade my OS. But like I said, not until god knows when, I am sure I am keeping the 1814 for many years to come.

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"Think twice before buying this one" submitted March 20, 2006

By a customer from diwic.net

Overall

Sound

Features

Ease of Use

Quality

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: Semi pro piano player

Music Style: Gospel/jazz

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Sound: The analog inputs are nice, and so is the headphone output. Preamps are not bad but could have been even better, at least when it comes to the S/N ratio. Feature: Well, it has a lot of inputs and some outputs, and that's what I need. Haven't used the spdif or adat so far. Would have been nice with standalone operation, so you could use it as a mic preamp when not connected to the computer. On the PC side drivers are Windows XP only, a linux driver would have been appreciated. Ease of Use: M-audio has it's own control panel where you control most of the stuff. Direct monitoring is supported. The difficult thing is to get it up and running. Quality: Well, it began when I unpacked the unit and one of the knobs fell off. The wheel knobs' reaction is quite slow. I have two computers, one desktop and one laptop. Most problems have been on my desktop computer. The main problem is to get it detected by the desktop. The firewire connector on my motherboard did not work at all, so I bought a separate fw card. After selecting the "right" PCI slot, it finally was detected. The problems do not end there, however, because when I installed XP SP2, it disappeared. Made it appear again by installing some fix from Microsoft, and it appeared again. Until one day when it suddenly disappeared again, and haven't appeared since. So the driver quality is really bad. If the card is not detected, at least it should tell my why or detect that something is bad. Onto the laptop computer where it has been working well - until this year when there are pops in the recorded material. No warning in the control panel about the overload or anything, or the reason why. So - I would say the driver quality is *bad*, but that of course depends upon if you happen to have a computer where it works, or where it doesn't. My advice is to make sure the card is detected and installed correctly before you buy it, if that's possible. Manufacturer Support: First support form email was not responded at all. On the second attempt I got an helpful answer. The Wow Factor: To put this in a nice way - After all boring hours spent to get it working, I'm not very eager to buy any of M-audio's products again. Overall: I like most of the ideas about this product, but it's difficult to get it up and running if you have bad luck.

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"OKAY BUT.....YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!!!!!!" submitted November 8, 2006

By a customer from yahoo.com

Overall

Sound

Features

Ease of Use

Quality

Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: Recording Engineer

Music Style: Hip-Hop/R&B

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Sound: Okay sound. Not the best A/D converters...I dont care what people say, there is a noticable difference in converters. Feature: For the money , cant beat this price because they give you the option to use external ADAT A/D converters like Apogee if you wish. Response of volume level knob is bad though. You turn up the volume and it willl turn up......10 seconds later. Ease of Use: Its easy when working. Quality: This is my 3rd interface by M-Audio and they all work the 1st day then boom, I cant make music anymore. Its cool when it works. Sort of sturdy but not the best. My problem with the Audiophile and the 1814 was when I hit record the audio would skip and pop and thses things where actually recorded/printed into my audio files in pro tools. I bought a new mac as a result of this because I thought it was my PC that was the problem,,,so this thing actually cost me 2000 dollars. Value: Very good price compared to digidesgn.....but be very very careful because YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. Manufacturer Support: M-Audio didnt know the problem...and why should I have to have 2 brandnew products repaired. Overall: I made 5 tracks and it start messing up on me. I spent more time returning and exchanging than making music...for real musicians that is a nightmare...Having ideas in your head but no interface to record with...waiting 2-3 weeks for exchanges to happen. In the end I wound up ordering digidesigns Mbox 2 Pro..which I was trying to avoid because of the price and input limits...but...Like I said...you get waht you pay for.

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"Great buy!!!" submitted November 22, 2006

By a customer from hotmail.com

Overall

Sound

Features

Ease of Use

Quality

Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: Active Musician/ Assistant Recording Engineer

Music Style: Rock, Alternative mostly and some electronic stuff as well

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Sound: Great sound! PreAmps are bad? What's wrong with you people? Wonderful pre amps!!! Ofcoarse if you record in a noisy room then nothing is gonna help you. Feature: It's got some very nice features but lacks 8xls. Great for small stuff like recording vocals etc. for more inputs rent or by additional micpreamp. Remember 1814 is supposed to be a portable unit that you some times take out to record your band or something of that sort. It's not supposed to be permanently instaled( allthough easyly can with some additional hard ware} so think of that. Ease of Use: Easy Quality: good quality these days, I think, there is no such thing as top quality and if there is 1814 is top quality. Every thing is made in china and every body tries to save on production. Knobs are nice ins and outs are plastic, but hey can you remember the last time you saw an interface such as this with metal Jacks? I don't think so. Value: Even a yaer ego this thing was worth every peny! Manufacturer Support: never delt! The Wow Factor: People tend to progress over time, so although I have this unit and like the way it looks and works, I have my eyes set on either M-audio Mix project( twice the price of 1814 ) or 002 ( even more expensive ). But I'll stick to 1814 for a while longer for now it satisfies all my needs. Overall: I had it for more than a year now and I'm looking foward to getting Pro tools software soon. If you have a lot of money go with 002, but 1814 is great alternative if you don't. Work on the worlds best software and see/hear the difference for your self.

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"Good deal!!!" submitted March 16, 2006

By a customer from yahoo.ca

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Features

Ease of Use

Quality

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The Wow Factor

Musical Background: 7 years

Music Style: rock/metal

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Sound: The sound is fine. You should have no pops or cracks if you install the software correctly. Feature: Good features, however would've been nice to see 8 xrl inputs. Ease of Use: Very simple. Quality: Looks really good and solid, but the 1/4 inserts are plastic although i don't care as long as they don't brake. Value: The best. You can't find anything else out there that would give you the same features and quality for the price. Manufacturer Support: Haven't had any problems so far( had it for 8 months) The Wow Factor: I do want it. But i want it even more with 8 xrl inputs. Overall: Overall it's a very good product and I mean it. Run it with any kind of software including PRO TOOLS. Ins and outs enough for a small studio.

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"M-Audio, the "M" stands for Mediocrity" submitted February 7, 2007

By a customer from hotmail.com

Overall

Sound

Features

Ease of Use

Quality

Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: active musician and home recording enthusiast

Music Style: 60 garage, mod, psyche and indie rock

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Sound: It makes no sound because it doesn't work. Feature: It looks okay but it doesn't work. Ease of Use: It's straight forward if it would work. Quality: I've been through two of these trying to get it to work. I've been through two firewire cards... etc... I'll never own another M-Audio product. Value: Probably good if it works. Manufacturer Support: They were responsive but didn't have a clue. They also closed my ticket requiring me to start the line of questions over again. The Wow Factor: Light weight and cheap feeling when you actually touch it. It looks good though. Like stucko stone on a house. Overall: see above

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M-Audio Firewire 1814 Audio/MIDI Interface (Macintosh and Windows)

User Ratings

M-Audio Firewire 1814 Customer Review submitted March 4, 2008

"I love these beasts!!" submitted December 2, 2005

"Its worth it as long as you read the instructions!" submitted April 6, 2007

"Bad Reviewers: If your system is unstable and you have bad quality cables, well of course the 1814 wont perform as expected..!!" submitted April 2, 2007

"Think twice before buying this one" submitted March 20, 2006

"OKAY BUT.....YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!!!!!!" submitted November 8, 2006

"Great buy!!!" submitted November 22, 2006

"Good deal!!!" submitted March 16, 2006

"M-Audio, the "M" stands for Mediocrity" submitted February 7, 2007