Edirol FA101 vs Mackie Onyx Satellite

ParsonsMatt

ParsonsMatt

Alas, Tyranny
Nov 15, 2006
2,124
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Athens, GA
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I've narrowed my search for a new interface down to two candidates:

Edirol FA101: http://www.zzounds.com/item--EDIFA101
Mackie Onyx Satellite: http://www.zzounds.com/item--MACONYXSAT

Pros for the Edirol:
- Lots of inputs and outputs
- Good reviews, supposed to be very high quality and reliable

Cons
- Expensive

Pros for the Mackie
- Cheap!
- Enough inputs, decent array of outputs
- Mostly good reviews

Cons
- One bad review, from a guy using the same computer system as me ( Dell Inspiron 1521 laptop with Vista ).

Anyone have any experience with either of these units? If so, please post it up!
 
I've been using my Satellite since the end of the summer, and it's absolutely fantastic functionality-wise; I'm running it at 128 samples of latency (~2.9 ms according to Reaper) with zero problems, and the multiple outputs are extremely useful for re-amping (sending the dry signal only out of, say, output 3, while being able to monitor everything else via outputs 1-2). The only complaint I could have with it is the quality of the DA conversion; a bit of a step down even from my old PodXT (my previous interface), mainly in that the stereo image doesn't seem to be as defined. Still, I've gotten used to it, and that only affects what you hear, not what's recorded (maybe the A/D conversion is better; kinda hard to test that without having something to compare it to). So yeah, I highly recommend it, especially because I got mine new for $160 on ebay! And I've heard people have driver issues with it, but I haven't had any, though that could be because I run it into the firewire port on my expresscard with a TI chipset.
 
I've got the Onyx satellite, dont use it as an interface tbh as I use pro tools, I do plug into it when I'm messing around on Revalver though.

To be honest, I only got it as the Onyx preamps are pretty well regarded, a definite improvement from the standard Mbox pre's. And because of the satellite/base station idea I can take the pre's out on location to record with, while still leaving my studio all wired up, handy that.
 
Better, I'd imagine - from all that I've heard, the Onyx pres are some of the best of the "prosumer" preamps out there
 
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