Phonic Firefly 302 USB 5 x 6 USB 2.0 Audio Interface

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List Price: $219.99
Sale Price: $149.99
Today's Bonus: 32% Off

• 5 x 6 24-bit/192kHz USB 2.0 stream I/O
• 2 x 2 analog operation (RCA)
• Front-panel microphone in (XLR) with +48V phantom power
• Headphone output with dedicated level control
• Low-latency ASIO software direct monitoring

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I've got a 64-bit Windows 7 laptop with an older version of Sonar on it. This just didn't work with my setup. The drivers seemed to install properly, but neither Windows nor Sonar recognized it.

So, I tried installing the Cubase software it was bundled with. That wouldn't install. Waste of time.

I gave it two stars instead of one because if it works with your setup, it might sound great. I have no idea. But if you're using Windows 7, don't bother. Spend a little less on a Tascam US-200 or a little more on a Firewire setup.

Also, I thought it was weird that the XLR input was just in the direct center of the front of the unit.

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When I installed the unit, the sound balance/equalization was way off out of any of the outputs. The bass levels were non existent almost. I contacted their technical support department who(after days) told me the usual "reinstall the drivers" which I had already done, then they had no other ideas so they referred me to the distributor in the U.S. I called the phone number only to find out that there was ONE person doing the Phonic customer service and he was out of the office for 8 days from when I called. I emailed later and got a short response back after a few days. After another round of emails they said the unit was broken. Amazon exchanged it and got another one to me the next day (Amazon's great). But it wasn't a problem with the unit, I had the same issue, and the only response I got then was "well it's probably your computer and we don't provide service for that." Well, I had the same issue on three computers I tried it on. Every email from them took from 2-5 days to get back to me and they didn't solve anything. The product might work well for you but expect that you might have an issue that will take a month to get solved, or never get solved.

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I purchased this product about a month ago for the purpose of archiving and digitizing records and reel to reel tapes. Thus far, it has performed well and is farily easy to operate. This purchase was my first audio interface; much of the setup is self-explanatory, although I did have some intial difficulty with adjusting it for stereo output. The sound quality the Phonic Firefly produces is excellent for the price. However, should you purchase this product, understand that there is virtually no customer service or support. There is no support phone number on the Phonic website, so support is relegated to email. I contacted customer support via email because I was sent the CD installer for the Firewire version of the product rather than the USB version. Despite multiple attempts, Phonic did not respond to any of my emails. I was ultimately able to download the appropriate installer online. But if you are not computer literate or if you like to purchase equipment from a company with decent (or even any) customer service, I'd stay away from Phonic. I would also only purchase this product from amazon or other vendor that has a liberal return policy in case you run into problems. In summary, I give the product itself four stars, but subtract two stars for the nonexistent customer service.

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I did get this thing to work with Windows 7, no problem. I ran it at either 176.4 or 192, depending on the content I was playing. The line output sounded great. To my ears, the jitter was fairly low, the bass fairly controlled and the treble was natural (not grainy). The headphone output on the other hand was rather average on my Grado SR-60s. The bass wasn't super tight and the treble was a bit soupy. Mostly, I think they just used cheap capacitors. Swapping everything out with Panasonic FCs would probably nullify these complaints.

The recording side was another matter. I bought this interface specifically so I could record in 192/24 to capture the full air and depth of my high end vinyl setup (After a lot of listening and research, I found 44.1/16 just didn't do justice). I was horribly disappointed. The midrange was exaggerated and the treble was somewhat smeary and rolled off. What's more, I found that mechanical vibrations were actually being recorded. The interface was acting like a microphone! I opened it up and isolated it to one surface mounted inductor. Doing a spectral analysis of the input, I found the interface had large amounts of noise particularly in the ultrasonic region, too.

I opened up the interface with the intention of doing a re-cap job. Long story short, the power switch on the back has three positions, two of which are usable when it's in the enclosure. Not knowing this, it got bumped to the third position and when I plugged it in, it must have blown the surface-mounted voltage regulators (the audio output stages are extremely weak, but the DAC still functions).

In short, nice idea but the actual implementation sucks. Go with a more reputable brand.