FireFace 800 on Intel Mac?

jmoore · Post by **jmoore** » Wed May 30, 2007 2:54 pm

Alright,

I've got a guy who is willing to sell me his FireFace 800 for $700. My question is this: How big of an improvement will this be over my 828mkii? Adding the two additional pres will be nice, but I want to make sure that I'm not sacrificing stability. Any reports of using this unit on an Intel iMac with DP5?

-jordan

BradLyons · Post by **BradLyons** » Wed May 30, 2007 4:00 pm

The converters on the Fireface800 are VERY nice! I wonder this, however.....the Fireface800 is $1500 brand new, why would someone be selling one for $700?? Do you know the seller?

kgdrum · Post by **kgdrum** » Wed May 30, 2007 7:26 pm

my Mac is PPC,I really don't know anything about Intel but I love my FF800.it is much better than the 896(not hd) I had before that.nice pre's, better converters and a very good clock .it is bundled w/ software equivalent of Cuemix....RME calls Totalmix which makes the FF very flexible.@$700 if it's in good shape I'd grab it!

KG

jmoore · Post by **jmoore** » Wed May 30, 2007 9:03 pm

BradLyons wrote:The converters on the Fireface800 are VERY nice! I wonder this, however.....the Fireface800 is $1500 brand new, why would someone be selling one for $700?? Do you know the seller?

I had the same thought, but this guy has been a regular on Gearslutz since '04 and appears to have bought and sold several items with no complaints as far as I can tell. He says that he needs to let this go quickly so that he can make rent.

Brad, any concerns about it's stability with a Core 2 Duo iMac?

-jordan

mhschmieder · Post by **mhschmieder** » Thu May 31, 2007 1:12 pm

There are several sources for Fireface 800's that are much cheaper than $1500 (I got mine brand new for $1100), so a $700 price tag wouldn't be such a huge markdown in such cases.

Nevertheless, it pays to check the background of sellers and why they are selling. I always put the reasons I am selling in my own ads, as I feel that generates better trust between buyer and seller.

BradLyons · Post by **BradLyons** » Thu May 31, 2007 1:17 pm

No experience with it on an iMac, but I can't see why it wouldn't work either.

jmoore · Post by **jmoore** » Thu May 31, 2007 1:41 pm

Well it turns out that this guy sold the unit before I could give him the final go ahead. Unfortunately I am now left for a jonesing to get my hands on one of these. I suppose the upside is that now I can do a bit more homework before I make the purchase. My concern about its compatibility with the Intel iMac is based on some user reviews. Apparently some people are finding the drivers a bit unstable. RME seems to be a great company, so I kind of have a hard time believing that it's not more of a user error type thing.

mhschmieder, would you mind chiming in and letting me know where you found a new one for $1100. I was aware that $1500 was the standard 'asking price' and that better deals could easily be had, but I wouldn't have thought you could get down to $1100. At that price, the FF800 seems like a tremendous value!