Looking to upgrade Audio Interface

[eox08]

Hello everyone, I know this is a bit of a "depends on what you need" type of question but I was hoping I could get some clarity as to what I should be considering for a new Audio Interface. Since 2011 I've been using a Firestudio Mobile by Presonus. It's been great but I feel as it's time to upgrade.

My PC is a intel i7 3770k with 16 gigs of 2333 ram on a ASUS z77 Sabertooth.

Reason I am throwing out these specs is the Firestudio seems to have a hard time with low latency. Typically I run a 256 buffer speed but i'm looking to get that lowered. I'm on the fence between a PCIe card and a firewire/usb interface. I do play live running my Vsti's but primarily I'm on my desktop.

Now, I have for the most part optimized my BIOS and windows 7 for low DPC latency.

I was eyeing the Focusrite pro 14 but if that's not going to make much of a difference from my Firestudio Mobile I rather look elsewhere. All in all, I'm ready to upgrade and I'm curious as to what you guys would consider an upgrade from my Firestudio Mobile. Now, I know an RME would be ideal but as of now I don't have the means to buy one. Though, if you guys think I should save my money and make an RME or Apollo as my next purchase as an upgrade I probably should take that advice!

[bmrzycki]

What price range are you looking at and how many mic/line inputs + outuputs do you really need?

Along with the revered RME, I've heard good things about MOTU (never owned one) and the new Arturia AudioFuse looks interesting too (not available yet). Both are in the $500-600 range though and that's getting close to a RME babyface.

For what it's worth I use a Roland QUAD-CAPTURE on Windows 8 64 bit and have no trouble using Reaper with 64 samples which translates to around 2.3-4.7ms latency. I haven't had any crackles/pops, glitches that weren't due to CPU or exceeding 0.0 dbFS. I use it to play my VSTi's realtime too and it just works.

[eox08]

All I really need is two inputs. I use one Mic and one input for my electric guitar. The rest is VSTi's.

I've been eyeing your audio interface actually. I'm just trying to wrap my mind around what would be considered an upgrade from my Firestudio Mobile performance wise

[bmrzycki]

I've been eyeing your audio interface actually. I'm just trying to wrap my mind around what would be considered an upgrade from my Firestudio Mobile performance wise

I purchased the interface for the following reasons:

1. VS digital pres - you can adjust the input volume from knobs on the front or from the included driver package. The auto-sens feature and hardware compression are nice bonuses but I use them infrequently.

2. They focused on latency issues in their drivers and hardware with something they branded as VS Streaming. Sure it's marketing fluff but it also means they tried to address the concern. I figured if it was all untrue I'd return the interface. So far I've been impressed with the low-latency performance whatever you want to call it.

3. The physical separate digital and analog sections of the board to minimize cross talk especially for devices that are USB bus powered. I have to say this thing never makes the odd pop or crackle like a few others I used to use. This is probably the biggest reason I switched from my Komplete Audio 6. That sucker used to cause my monitors to pop loudly every time it received bus power and I'd hear crackles/static when turning the volume knob. There's even a ground lift switch, something rarely found in devices at this price range.

Roland covers most of this in one of their videos. Sure, it's marketing, but it can give you at least some kernel of truth: