Firewire Or Usb? Options

[ghant]

Is USB good enough to record with? Im in the process of purchasing an Audio interface for my Powerbook and I cant decided on what platform to use. I know Firewire is fast but the units are also exspensive. I wont be recording more than a mic and a guitar so I dont need that much. I want something with XLR in with phatom power and some other little features. Anyone suggest anything? So I just go with USB since its cheaper?

Thanks

[dixiechicken]

Check out threads on this board and http://www.unicornation.com/.
There are at present various issues with USB-audio interfaces and DP4.
Especially usb-interfaces that rely on the CoreAudio-drivers built into OS X.
Notable thr EZBus usb-interface. Usb interfaces wth custom written drivers seem to work better.

Audio quality for usb and firewire are the same, depends mainly on other factors. Be ware that the bandwith on USB 1.1 is very limited compared to firewire (1394-a). Fire wire was specifically designed as point-to-point high speed serial protocol, with video & audio in mind. Usb was NOT.

USB 1.1 == 12 Mb/sec
firewire 1394-a == 400Mb/sec
USB 2.0 == 480Mb/sec
firewire 1394-b == 800Mb/sec
with promise of 1600Mb/sec to come (for short cables)

For small to medium audio projects usb will probably get you by,
for more ambitious project go with firewire.

Cheers: Dixiechicken