Replace Firepod with?

[iHate]

I hate this piece of garbage Firepod. I want something for DI guitars, mic'ing amps, and rock vocals. Right now I'm running a dual core windows machine and Cubase. Should I go Apogee and Mac?

I really only need 2 channels, and most of the time only 1. There's the Duet, and RME is supposedly releasing the Duet rival called the Babyface this fall. Maybe API A2D. Should I go for an interface like this, or should I be looking at separate conversion and a nice preamp?

What else should I be looking at? Price below $2k, but cheaper is always better! Just looking for suggestions...

 

[HandsOfDespair]

I hate this piece of garbage Firepod. I want something for DI guitars, mic'ing amps, and rock vocals. Right now I'm running a dual core windows machine and Cubase. Should I go Apogee and Mac?

I really only need 2 channels, and most of the time only 1. There's the Duet, and RME is supposedly releasing the Duet rival called the Babyface this fall. Maybe API A2D. Should I go for an interface like this, or should I be looking at separate conversion and a nice preamp?

What else should I be looking at? Price below $2k, but cheaper is always better! Just looking for suggestions...

I noticed a HUGE difference going from firepod to profire 2626...Even bigger than going from toneport to firepod.. But if you have a big budget I think the fireface would be great.

 

[iHate]

I noticed a HUGE difference going from firepod to profire 2626...Even bigger than going from toneport to firepod.. But if you have a big budget I think the fireface would be great.

It's interesting, I never would have thought there would be a big difference between the two but the 2626 does get high praise. Can you describe more of what happened when you switched to the 2626? I can't really imagine the changes in sound because the firepod is all I've ever used.

 

[HandsOfDespair]

It's interesting, I never would have thought there would be a big difference between the two but the 2626 does get high praise. Can you describe more of what happened when you switched to the 2626? I can't really imagine the changes in sound because the firepod is all I've ever used.

When I plugged in my profire for the first time and played a song to know if everything was working fine, I had the feeling a blanket had been removed form my speakers haha...Everything was sounding a lot better, probably because the converters in the profire are superior to those of the firepod.

I had tons of problem with my firepod too, some pres were a lot noisier than others, I often had glitches in my tracks, I had crosstalk between my output and input... So changing to my profire was a biggg relief. Also, the driver for the profire are a lotttt better, I remember with my firepod I only had a small window with Bitrate and Khz options, with the profire you get all the routing, mixer, etc...

My main concern with the profire is the blue screen that a lot of people including me are experiencing. Since I formated my computer, it happens only once a week though, so its not that bad.