Switching to Mac and... mbox2 or maudio firewire?

[DanielPinho]

Whats up guys

I was a PC user for a long time, and I used to record using a Soundblaster Audigy2 ZS + Cubase SX.

Well, but the desktop PC was too big to fit my room anymore. I sold it and bought a Toshiba laptop, and a Soundblaster Audigy2ZS Notebook (PCMCIA).

I regret for that.

Although the new PC is much faster and has more RAM than the desktop, this soundcard is really sh**, ASIO keeps crashing all the time and I haven't recorded anything for about a year.

Since I'm not going back to desktop PCs, I decided to give Mac a try. I found a nice macbook with a good processor(core 2 duo) and 2gb ram.

Now I'm struggling to find a good soundcard to work with it. People say that MBox2 won't work on the new mac OSX system, that it has a certain delay for the feedback (that really sucks when you're a singer). Plus its USB 1.1, and I don't find it to be very reliable.

I've also found some information about the M-audio firewire 410, which wasn't very stimulating as well (many people complaining about driver problems, software crashes, compatibility issues, etc).

But I guess I have only these 2 options, since I have a low budget: 300 US$ max.

mbox2 mini has the advantage of coming with Protools LE 7 software, and the lack of reliability of the USB 1.1.

maudio firewire has the advantage of the firewire connection, while not being reliable due to driver issues.

both are 300$.

What would you guys do? I'm really lost here.

Thank you for your attention!
Regards,
Daniel

[richiebee]

Edirol UA25. Also USB 1.1. So what? It's two channels, and USB1.1 can handle it just fine. Not sure about Intel Mac compatibility. I know it works on PC's and pre-intel macs well.

I'm not sure why you'd find USB 1.1 unreliable. Maybe there's something wrong with your computer.

You could have saved yourself some money by changing the soundblaster out first and keeping the Toshiba. Macs are cool too, but I think it was an unnecessary change. Soundblasters are well known for sucking.

Most audio interfaces have a zero latency input monitoring which lets you hear the signal before it goes into the computer.