Mbox vs Firebox

[curtis]

Which do you think would be better and more worth the price and performance--Mbox or Firebox?

Currently I'm micing a Soldano Astroverb and/or B-52 AT-100 with a Shure SM58 [57 soon] and running that into a Behringer Euro series mixer, and then into a Delta 44 soundcard.

I'm simply going to be doing guitar recording, so I won't need anything more spectacular than something like these two products here. Does anyone have any direct experience with the two? Would I be any better off with my current setup? Any feedback is much appreciated!

PS: I was even interested in building one of those mini rack systems from Presonus [Firebox, TubePre, COMP16, EQ3B -- any comments or feedback on that little rig?]

[turkishpunkass]

apples to oranges.

mbox is protools specific equipment. it's usb, so it's slow, but fine for recording 1 or 2 tracks. they just released mbox2, so mbox 1 is down in price.

the firebox is firewire, so its a lot faster. it doesn't work with protools, but you have a lot more options with it: you can use sonar, cubase, adobe audition, etc...

it's sound quality is great, and musicians friend dropped the price to $299 a few days ago. that's when i ordered mine.

performance wise, the firebox is 10x the mbox. it just depends if you want/need protools.

[curtis]

Yeah, I know it's protools vs non-protools specific, but I was asking about the hardware aspect of it, not just the software aspect. Are the pres in them essentially the same?

I know USB is much slower, but would it really matter consdering I'm not recording a full orchestra? Why did you get the Mbox over the Firebox if you think the Firebox is 10x better performance wise than the Mbox?

[turkishpunkass]

reread my post. i bought the firebox.
from a hardware standpoint, it's better than the mbox in every department.

[curtis]

My mistake.. you said 'it' so I wasn't sure which you were talking about. I also saw the Mbox price drop too, I think, so maybe that's why.

[SteveR]

dont get the mbox.

its uber lame.

It does its job but its not that great.

Id rather have the firebox or just a really nice soundcard.

[curtis]

lol it seems like the Mbox is out of the question now. on to another question.. i've got a Delta 44 soundcard right now along with a Behringer Euro series mixer. would it be better to just replace the mixer with a decent micpre and use that setup, or use a firebox with the built-in pres and use firewire? i understand that the firebox will have a bit more latency, but which would sound better?

[turkishpunkass]

i doubt the firebox would improve your sound quality over the delta 44 and behringer combo, since you are already probably doing 24-bit recording.

are you unhappy with the sound you are getting now? i know the behringer mixers aren't the greatest, but i've heard their mix pre's are actually pretty transparent and should be fine for tracking guitars.