Phonic FIREFLY 808 Universal 18X18 Firewire Interface 

Comments about Phonic FIREFLY 808 Universal 18X18 Firewire Interface:

The biggest problem with Phonic is that they don't really exist. There is a website for Phonic, based in Asia. If you need help in America you have to call US Music, who is merely a distributor, and doesn't really know anything about the product (their words, not mine).My 808 stopped working, so I shipped it back to them for an RMA. Then they ran out of units. Yea, really. 3 months later I had a new 808. Then I tried to use USB on a Mac. Woops! In order to do this you have to update the 808's firmware. FROM A WINDOWS MACHINE. Awesome. I did the update. Still doesn't work over USB. So now they want me to send this unit back for another RMA. I bought this 808 over a year ago and have had a working unit for about 3 full months. Do not buy this. It might work for you. Great. But if it doesn't, you will regret the purchase like I do.

Comments about Phonic FIREFLY 808 Universal 18X18 Firewire Interface:

I have been waiting at least 2 weeks for a response...when you are recording you sometimes cannot wait an hour and for sure not 2 weeks...
The unit itself seems most of the time to be stable, the software is basically terrible and outdated.
The company response on problems is not there...
I really think that if we checked deep enough we would find they are not even a real company.
Phone # is busy 24/7 either it is off the hook or they have way to many problems...

My suggestion, if it says Phonic on it, stay away from it, don't buy it, period...

Comments about Phonic FIREFLY 808 Universal 18X18 Firewire Interface:

After reading reviews on many similar products, comparing features, considering the general layout of the interface connections i picked up this amazing piece of technology.downloaded and read the manual before it got to me, had it recording 8 tracks in audition 3 in about 30 minuets (including the time it took me to attach all the cables) didn't mess with cuebase (the programs that come with these things are really only watered down versions of the full programs) haven't messed with the digital i/o or word clock but it is nice to have if it need it. *note* it will start to act funny if you do not turn it on before the computer, if you have active sound running through it when you turn it on (connected to turned on mixer) or if you leave it on for an extended length of time (overnight) additionally, the firewire on light is really fricking bright but if that's all i got to complain about....

Comments about Phonic FIREFLY 808 Universal 18X18 Firewire Interface:

I've had this product for about 2 months, and at first gave me a little headache because i kept getting an ugly delay. So i looked it up and found that they had new drivers for windows 7. After i downloaded them this thing works great, sounds crazy good on drums and verry little latency that won't really affect your recordings, so thumbs up on the phonic 808:)

Comments about Phonic FIREFLY 808 Universal 18X18 Firewire Interface:

Works great with workstation software and best of all the recording quality totally kicking!! I work with my own sound recordings with my keyboard and my friends ask me if I brought that cd somewhere else, and I told them I record it by myself. The only thing I can say this unit rocks!!

Comments about Phonic FIREFLY 808 Universal 18X18 Firewire Interface:

I just bought this in "like new" condition. I was thinking maybe I'd have to bust it open and change a connector, surely something was wrong with it.... NOPE!I have had a slew of recording interfaces, mostly USB/Firewire based. Between my Original M-Audio DUO (PAID $300 for 2 channels on USB 1.1!!!!), the Roland SI-24, my Alesis Multimix16 Firewire, the Icicle, and Alesis MultiMix4 USB, and now the Phonic 808, this is definitely the best interface.Its also the most costly, but for me, it wasn't. I don't really know how I got such a good deal from a vendor. The packaging was complete, no dings, no bad connections, no hums, no nothing. Clean sound, worlds better than the Alesis Pre's. I was going to buy an ART Tube Pre-Amp to run with this, but I don't find a need to. I usually record vocals, hip hop groups, singers for auditions, and acoustic sets, I'm quite excited for this rig to go to use. I really can't say enough about it. Phonic = Behringer as far as quality goes, I don't think so, not one bit. For anyone questioning this purchase, don't. Maybe I got lucky to have such an easy install (downloaded drivers from Phonic), and such a quality unit, but from what I've seen, I'll be purchasing more phonic soon. This won't let you down.

Comments about Phonic FIREFLY 808 Universal 18X18 Firewire Interface:

I have been using the Firefly 808 for a couple of months now. Thus far the experience has been great. I use it for recording the church choir a couple of times per week and our church band once a week. I also use it for occasional production work for the church. I produce sermons and music on CDs. The quality of the mics inputs on the 808 are really impressive. Vocals in particular sound amazing. I haven't used any digital inputs yet, but I do use the MIDI which works well. The computer installation went smoothly, though I admit I didn't use the software mixer at first. It wasn't necessary, but it made life a lot easier once I installed it. I took half a point off on features because the mic ins couldn't be recorded at 192KHZ, though 96KHZ is more than enough for me I'm sure some people want 192. You can make your own mind up on that. But overall this is a great unit and worth the purchase price and then some.

Comments about Phonic FIREFLY 808 Universal 18X18 Firewire Interface:

Not very impressed with the build quality. Plastic knobs felt extremely cheap either loose or too tight.The rest was utilitarian connections and nothing special to mention,but,the main problem I had and reason for 'worst rating' is that it was an absolute nightmare attempting to install the Cubase software that came with it.*Duly note, I am a computer repair technician and was aided by an full-time recording pro.Neither of us had ever seen anything like the instant blue-screen-of-death crashes and the total mayhem Cubase caused on the comp settings,and,The Phonic manual does NOT help you with anything else but Cubase installation.Other 'DAWs' failed to work with the Phonic after that (so we don't know if that was software or hardware at that point). Here is my new rule with any more electronics of any kind:- If it does not install itself and work properly without less than 4 hours of tech support - it is exactly the same as a totally useless box to me. The same as if broken in half.A product requiring more than 4 hours of technical support just to 'set up' is, by my standard, a terrible product.Its worse - its a product that just wasted a lot of my time and money for absolutely nothing gained by me.Phonic support took weeks to reply and by then I already returned it along with all accessories (which were also rendered useless) and at great expense to me.So basically I lost money to waste time and energy on a useless box for absolutely nothing.Thus the worst possible rating.