Mbox vs. M-Audio Vs. Presonus vs ...

[Mutant Tenor]

I'm looking to get a small audio interface along the lines of an Mbox 2 Mini or M-Audio Firewire Solo to run on the road with my PC laptop. I guess the advantage of the Mbox is if I'm running Protools it's automatically compatible, but I've heard there may be latency issues with the USB 1.1 connection. The firewire M-Audio could solve those problems theoretically, but then would I need to get to get Protools M-powered software? And if I went with something like the Presonus Firebox, is that Protools compatible at all? Any thoughts/advice/experience would be appreciated.

[lanceblair]

I'm very happy with my new M-Audio Fastrack Ultra, and their new firewire box is good too. The FTU even works with Vista 64 and is USB 2.0 and is solid with AA3 also. The preamps on the FTU are improved and I can even run dynamics nicely with nice clean gain. It has a slightly smeared high end to it, but it doesn't sound thin at all and the mids are clear. Good little box to take on the road.

I used to own the Firebox. The drivers are junk, and the preamps are even worse. So many better products out there from competitors (AudioFire4, Edirol).

[chucktaylor]

I too have an m-audio device. The good news is that you're not loosing anything with protools m-powered. It's just designed to work with m-audio devices as m-audio and digidesign are the same company and have been for a few years now. The even better news is that with that combination, there is a wider array of interface devices that can work with protools, I would however stick with m-audio's pro line as opposed to the consumer line.

[JBarrett]

I use the PreSonus Inspire GT (Guitar Center's version of the Inspire 1394) firewire interface, and haven't had any issues with it. I don't use ProTools, though, so I don't know if it's compatible with it or not.