ProFire 610 opinions?

[Jay Ashworth]

I'm looking at a small interface for both stage sound and DJ work, and after evaluating everything in the "2 or 3 stereo outs plus a return" category, I'm led to the M-Audio ProFire 610. I don't know that I think it would be a good deal at the $400-600 people seem to disagree on as its MSRP, but for the $150ish it looks like I'll be able to get a respectable sample for on eBay, it's probably not bad at all; reviews of it on several sites seem to tend towards "it's ok, as long as you don't expect the world from it"; the reviews that thought it sucked tended towards the ranty.

I'll be using it on Linux, on my ThinkPad x61, probably. Possibly on my HP Windows laptop or a desktop machine, for which I'll acquire compatible 1394 cards.

Does anyone here have one/use one, and what is your personal opinion? Audio quality? Compatibility? Ease of setup and use? How does it run port-powered (or can you)?

Any other interfaces in that size class you like better?

 

[lakota651]

A friend of mine has the 610 and seems to like it well enough. He uses it for personal recordings at home. Personally I have its big brother, the Profire 2626, and I quite like it. It runs on the same software, and I find it works well with everything I have tried it with on my mac. Audio quality is decent. Well worth the $300 I payed for it off of Craigslist. It's even better now that I have had it modded by Black Lion.

I know the windows software works just like the macs. For linux however; I believe you will have to look at 3rd party drivers. None of which I have experience with.

A flautist I know uses the the Focurite Scarlett 8i6 for backing mulit-tracks. It's pretty solid, seeing as how he has been touring with it for a while now.

 

[Eboy87]

Looks like the new version of the FireWire 410 I use. I've never had an issue with it, and I've done some very output intensive shows with it and QLab. Hasn't let me down yet. Good for ProTools M-powered as well.