Firewire or USB 2 audio interface - which is faster (test)

[Cheez]

I got my MOTU audio express interface and decided test and find out once and for all whether firewire 400 or USB 2.0 is faster.

Background: USB 2.0 has a faster transfer speed (480 Mbps) compared to Firewire 400 (400 Mbps). But firewire is said to be faster as it is peer-to-peer, allowing devices to control data transfer. USB 2, however, is master-slave, which means the computer controls the data transfer (technically taxing the system more).

One caveat - I'm running Kontakt streaming samples via an external USB drive. This may further tax the USB audio interfaces connected.

Both audio and midi signals are being processed, hence maxing out the transfer data as much as possible.

I tried both firewire and USB 2.0, and firewire is definitely faster. USB 2.0 encountered serious pops and clicks while none is encountered with firewire. So it's going to be firewire for me. Next is for somebody to test USB 3.0

Specs: 2.8GHz C2D, 6 GB RAM, external and internal HD 7200rpm, ASIO, buffer speed 256 (latency significant at 512), audio at 44.1KHz.

 

[kongwee]

How does sound against your RME? I am thinking of buying this when I have the money. I read on the website. MOTU give driver support even some 10 year old product.

 

[Cheez]

No difference in sound. I'm now using it live - even as I speak. 3 day live event. Hooked up - using Kontakt and another guitar hooked up using Guitar Rig. No glitches with keyboard and guitar on at the same time.

I have one problem with it. I dont' quite understand why I need to reduce the buffer setting to 256. It appears that it may be a driver issue or a hardware issue. My Echo Indigo (small Express card) can handle with 512MB or buffer with 88 KHz. For the MOTU, I had to lower to 44.1KHz and 256 MB buffer. Any higher and I get into some latency problems. This is ok for live, but for recording (esp samples), it's a big drawback. Some of my samples need to be recorded at 96KHz or I lose some serious nuances which I want to capture (particularly acoustic instruments). I hope the new drivers will resolve that.

By the way, I'm using the latest drivers and firmware.