I've been eyeing the Echo Audiofire 8.

Read some decent things about these units.

Any users around these part who can provide some personal insight?

I've been curious about that one as well (I'm currently getting by with an M-Audio TAMPA going S/PDIF into an FW410 - the TAMPA is fun, but the 410 is an "I can work with this for now, but it's far from inspiring, the onboard preamps are fuzzy/washy/undefined/hazier-sounding than I like and are uselessly noisy if I need much gain to speak of and I have to reset the driver about every other day" box IMHO - after a massive selling off/downsizing when we moved into our new place), and am getting the itch to move up to a bigger/better interface, but don't have the budget for the RME FireFace 800 in the cards anytime soon, and have been seeing pretty tepid reviews of the audio quality (particularly anything with built-in preamps) of the MOTU stuff (my last 'big interface' was a 2408). 'More channels' interfaces in this price range I've been looking at include:

Mackie Onyx 400F
Event Audiofire 12
Event Layla 3G
Tascam 1804
MOTU Traveler or 828mkII
Focusrite Saffire 26

...preferably used to save some bucks. In the price range, the Mackie and Event stuff seem to get better reviews for driver stability and sound quality of the 'stock' preamps and conversion quality, but don't have ADAT i/o for future expandability (which I'd like to think I'll need in the future, but realistically won't be tracking more than a drumset-worth of channels at a time anytime soon).

I just put my order in for an Echo Audiofire 8.

$431.

Im currently using an 002r with mackie 800r pres and sca pres (a12s,n72s and j99s)...

Im gonna A/B em see which has the better AD/DA. If the Audiofire isn't improvement i'll just return it.

Just curious how you're going to config (route) with that setup stickers? I notice the Echo Audiofire 8 doesn't have ADAT support, so how are you going to route the 800r into it?

Im gonna start out with internal pres and my sca pres.

I'd have to buy an 8 channel db25 to trs 1/4 snake to use analog line outs on the mackie into the line ins on the Audiofire which I may do or may not. its up in the air right now.

If 8 tracks isnt enought i may get some sort of 2 ch. pre with spdif out to use the spdif in on the Audiofire.

I'm looking forward to trying out tracktion 2. If i like it ill probably upgrade to the tracktion 3 bundle.

Speaking of adat, I emailed Echo and suggested it would be a good idea to add an adat light pipe onto there audiofire 8 and audiofire 12 units so its more competitive with similar hardware such the ff800, digi 003 etc.

They replied saying they would forward the email to their development team.

I won't be upgrading my interface for a while, but I really like what I see in the echo. I have 8 external pre's so the fireface is just redundant to me.

So be sure to give a post after you've toyed around with it! That is if you buy it of course.

I bought it. I just have to wait for it to come in.

I'll certainly report back...("imagonnas" annoy me on the internet. People who say they are gonna do something but then don't)

Something to note: when going through the inserts on channels 1&2, it appears the signal still is passing through the preamps. Just check the meters for the preamps on the front...they show signal passing through.

In all, while I'm certainly no expert on converters, I think the unit sounds darned good and is great bang for the buck.

I'm sure you knwo this, but make sure to download the latest drivers and firmware....it changes relatively frequently.

Echo's tech support are idiots.

I have a Gina3g. I emailed them some specific bugs/issues withthe GSIF (gigastudio driver)...I mean VERY specific. Including memory dumps and exactly how to recreate it.

They suggested because it was Gigastudio having the error I should reinstall Giga. Nice. Probably not their ggia specific driver, since I've had the exact same machine with an Maudio card working without issue for YEARS. Or, as I pointed out, it relates to having Hyperthreading enabled as part of the combo to cause the kernel dump--they suggested I "could try" turning it off. Duh. How the F do they think I knew it was part of the combo. I am a computer guy by trade, you know.

With the general ASIO performance, I'm pretty happy with the card itself. ADAT over to the Akai-analog out to the line mixer. The giga thing and their idiotic response to my well documented and explained issue just chaps me.

Well ive had my echo Audiofire 8 for a few days.

The sound quality seems pretty damn good. I recorded my acoustic. It seems more transparent and clearer than how I remember it through my 002r.

Im going to a/b it against my 002r on a variety sources eventually.

Tracktion is a cool program too. Its a nice change from protools.

ill report back with a more detailed analysis after I track a song with it.

But so far, for $431 the Echo Audiofire seems like a solid purchase.

Its certainly not a step down from an 002r as fair as my ears can tell.

Cool to hear. Seems like the audiofire is the only thing out there for what I would eventually want. And it seems to get good reviews anywhere I look. Nice to hear another positive!

You wouldn't believe how long it took me to find anything that didn't have mic pre's :P.