Arturia Audiofuse 16 Rig vs Rme Fireface 802 FS

[Trancer]

In your opinion, the Arturia 16 Rig or the Rme Fireface 802 FS?

Now, Rme with the Covid and the components crisis has suffered quite a bit and as a result sales have also been affected.

Is Rme still financially speaking a brand where we can always invest or should we remain cautious and perhaps move towards the competition?

From a manufacturing quality point of view, driver stability, very important the quality of the converters, parasitic output noise, audio quality and sound of course.

Rme has a great reputation for the quality of the converters, super stable drivers, impeccable manufacturing quality and above all the follow-up of exemplary products as well.

Arturia is credible and can claim to be similar or superior to Rme?

Which one is the best in relation to all these parameters above, the most interesting?

Is the price difference worth it?

Thank you in advance for your answers.

[rod_zero]

RME all the way, arturia is not on the same league of drivers for windows and also has to prove a long time record of support as RME.

My fireface UC is still going strong after 12 years and I am sure it will last another 10 years.

[CoolColJ]

Arturia is dog slow when it comes to updates and firmwares, so I would avoid just based on that

[Trancer]

Thank you very much for your responses and opinions.

Arturia may have difficulty winning against Rme.

The Arturia 16 Rig has a very good quality/price ratio.

But that’s not all, it’s clear.

Quality, reliability, stability, monitoring are also very important.

[aero+]

Arturia is dog slow when it comes to updates and firmwares, so I would avoid just based on that

As far as their synths go they’re actually exceptional with updates, adding functionality and refinements years after product launch. No direct experience on their audio interface but as a company and customer support they are solid.

[lfm]

Arturia is dog slow when it comes to updates and firmwares, so I would avoid just based on that

As far as their synths go they’re actually exceptional with updates, adding functionality and refinements years after product launch. No direct experience on their audio interface but as a company and customer support they are solid.

I'm with CoolColJ on this.

On polybrute it was well known and acknowledged i january 2022 that concurrent midi in and out was a problem and caused hung notes really quick. So playing from keyboard echoing data through sequencer was enough, hung notes.

6 months later, still no update, and I sold PB, for that and other reasons too. One update in between, but that was for another model of display they had in hardware also in production, but no bugfixes.

When I got PB fall 2021 I was lucky almost a year since last update, and some bugs I found got fixed in 2 months.
- but note that 10 months previous update

So no, Arturia are not solid on firmware updates.

So if having nothing showstopper on the line and just look at added functionality, good for you.

[vitocorleone123]

I went Digiface USB + Ferrofish instead of the Arturia because I don’t really need any mic inputs. It’s a little more expensive, but decidedly better and more flexible solution, too.

I could also add mic inputs down the road by either using Ferrofish inputs to add external mic pres… or swear off working at 96k (I’m at 48k due to old computer) and add another unit with mic Pres via ADAT (I have no space at my desk, but do have an old Steinberg MR FireWire interface in storage that has 8 mic Pres if I was desperate).

[legendCNCD]

RME all the way.

[bmanic]

RME has 100% earned their reputation. Their support and the longevity of their products, reflected in used market prices, is on a completely unique level. I can't think of any other company that comes even close.

I'm _never_ buying any other brands interfaces again and I have quite a lot of experiences with all manners of price category from high end ( much more expensive than RME flagship) to mid and low tier stuff. The single constant of RME compared to all others is the classic phrase "it just works.."

My super old PCI HDSP 9632 card is still supported and would work perfectly in a brand new Windows 11 computer system!

[lfm]

My super old PCI HDSP 9632 card is still supported and would work perfectly in a brand new Windows 11 computer system!

I had to ditch mine since no pci slots on the motherboards I found.
- my addon AI4S does not work on new PCIe AIO either

So a Digiface USB works well though.
- that cost 1/3 of if to upgrade to AIO and new AI4S
- so had to ditch some analog input to just use ADAT from 8 preamps

[andymcbain]

I'll just add that my Fireface 800 turns 20 years old this year and is still supported. It's had it's power supply replaced twice admittedly, but still chucking away nicely in the rack

[SV1080]

One only hears great things about RME.
The Digiface looks a nice way to get into their ecosystem at a lower cost.
If the 16rig was made by Steinberg I might have bought one already, as last 2 interfaces were theirs (UR816C current one). It's not that they are spectacular, but they are fine for me and it became apparant researching other brands that it's a lottery whether it will be solid on your system or not. So knowing Steinberg are good I stuck with them but will hopefully be looking at RME soon I think as I would like more I/O and the thought of having worse performance than now is very off-putting, so only RME seem to guarantee that great stable solid performance.