Profire 2626 vs. digi 003+ factory

[Rob Logic]

I have read through tons of threads regarding the 2626 and most people dig them here. I sold some serious gear (Metric Halo uln2 and Mackie onyx 800r) recently to pay off some immediate debt and now I'm getting jobs thrown at me. Ultimately, I'm trying to keep the cost lowish but will spend some extra bucks if needed to get something that be more practical. Will be using a pre unibody macbook pro with 4 gb ram and building an i7 machine in the future running windows 7 ultimate 64. I want to be able to record a full drumkit, reamping guitars is crucially important, and track vocals. Have a dbx 367 that I could hook up spdif as well.

If I went m-powered from the start I could build the i7 box. What am I forgetting??

What are the benefits of le vs. m-powered? What are the differences between latencies with the 2626 vs. 003+? Would it be a worthy investment for additional plugins and such with factory or would purchasing music production toolkit 2 with m-powered software negate the additional benefit of the included plugins? I've read some features are LE only. I just don't want to miss out on features of the software. Keeping logic 9 in the loop for synths and such. Thanks for any help you guys can provide in shoving me in the right direction.

 

[AdamWathan]

Profire 2626 can only go down to 128 buffer in M-Powered, pretty sure the 003+ can at least go to 64. Aside from that there's not really much difference besides cost. I use LE and M-Powered on a regular basis (Profire in studio and M-Box Mini on my desk in my room) and haven't noticed any differences in features, I'm 99% sure they are identical.

 

[El_Gato]

003 factory is a waste of cash if you're going for the plug bundle IMO. I bought it a couple of years ago and finally lots of demo plugs and almost no one for my needs. Huge deception when I noticed almost all of them were demos. Check them well before buying.

No idea of the profire BTW

 

[darthjujuu]

i'd say profire. i can't think of any reason why i'd want a 003+ instead. the only difference between m-powered and LE is DV toolkit. for most of us, this is irrelevant, rendering the two identical.

 

[crillemannen]

Why dont you buy a used Digi 002 and buy an addititional preamp such as the Octopre LE then you have 12micpre's ready to go

 

[darthjujuu]

Why dont you buy a used Digi 002 and buy an addititional preamp such as the Octopre LE then you have 12micpre's ready to go

i'd fling my 002board out the window for a profire =[ the profire's preamps/converters are far superior. and the monitoring/routing options in the 002 leave some to be desired. the 003+ is definitely a contender, but isn't worth the extra dough.

 

[Rob Logic]

Thanks guys. I considered getting a 002 rack but I have had a 002 console in the past and was not too happy with the device. I did have several issues with it where they had to send out different parts and kits to fix it on the user end which wasn't an issue cause there was no cost just hassle.

Buying one years old and expect it to work for years is too risky regardless of cost 2nd hand. I think I am gonna go the profire route, buy m-powered, and build an i7 box. I may or may not may not purchase the music production toolkit with the rest of the equipment.

Thanks for your input lads!

 

[AdamWathan]

Production Toolkit is worth it just for multitrack BD and TL Space IMO

 

[brianhood]

Why dont you buy a used Digi 002 and buy an addititional preamp such as the Octopre LE then you have 12micpre's ready to go

+1

 

[Josh M.]

Profire 2626 can only go down to 128 buffer in M-Powered, pretty sure the 003+ can at least go to 64. Aside from that there's not really much difference besides cost. I use LE and M-Powered on a regular basis (Profire in studio and M-Box Mini on my desk in my room) and haven't noticed any differences in features, I'm 99% sure they are identical.

Actually, the Profire does go down to 64 buffer size.

 

[::XeS::]

I bought a 2626 and an Octopre LE, and DV toolkit. Best deal of my life.

 

[skatmatt]

The 003+ factory has 8 Pres and 1x ADAT IN and OUT
The 2626 has 8 Slightly better pres (than the 003) and 2x ADAT IN and OUT
The 2626 is also cheaper and has better converters.