Phonic Firefly 808 Universal Interface - Now with Conclusions

[Chagus]

Also i purchased a desktop to be solely dedicated to running the 808... Its a Dell intel Core i5 2.8 GHz processor 6 gig RAM. Should be good to go for the Firefly.

[Travst]

I've had my Firefly for a couple of weeks now and love it. I am a hobbyist and the features match my current needs perfectly for recording guitar, vocals, and keyboards and there is room for growth via ADAT as well as adding outboard preamps. The unit is very solid with the sole exception being the front panel knobs that aren't secured to the faceplate as Anderton noted in his review. However, they seem well secured for normal use barring accidents. The units are now grey instead of silver and it's a very attractive piece. The various lights, knobs, and inputs are laid out clearly and intuitively.

Setup was a breeze, and there were no problems with the Windows drivers on my x64 Win7 i7 laptop with 16gb of memory. I plugged everything in after installing the newest drivers and it worked with no hassles. Last week I hooked up 4 mics and 2 stereo signals from synths and filled all 8 channels with no problem at all. The included mixer software is very simple and intuitive and works great. The one comment I will make on the mixer is that it does not offer as many features as others that I have used, the most recent being Focusrite's MixControl. Routing doesn't seem to be as flexible and there doesn't seem to be an option for varying multiple headphone mixes. But what it does do, it does simply and very well.

While it's too early to make a final judgement on the sound of the preamps, I like what I'm hearing so far. The Firefly is is a lot of interface for the price, and I would not hesitate to recommend it to others. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, this is my second Phonic product and I have been very impressed with both pieces.

[Whalebonemusic]

Travst: I wouldn't get your hopes too high with respect to ADAT expansion. I'm now on my second unit, replaced by the store I bought it from. I have done absolutely everything recommended by the manufacturer, and still don't have a working ADAT connection to my other interface. I've spent days trying to make it work. It has been a frustrating experience to say the least. At this point, I'm considering treating the money I spent on the unit as a net loss and posting a video of me taking a chainsaw to the Firefly 808 on youtube.

[Travst]

 

Originally Posted by Whalebonemusic

Travst: I wouldn't get your hopes too high with respect to ADAT expansion. I'm now on my second unit, replaced by the store I bought it from. I have done absolutely everything recommended by the manufacturer, and still don't have a working ADAT connection to my other interface. I've spent days trying to make it work. It has been a frustrating experience to say the least. At this point, I'm considering treating the money I spent on the unit as a net loss and posting a video of me taking a chainsaw to the Firefly 808 on youtube.

 

Sounds like I should plug in my ADA8000 and test it out. That would be very frustrating to encounter, sorry to hear you're having trouble with it.

[jaredmcohen]

I'll throw in my 2 cents on the Firefly 808, for whatever they're worth...

I bought my 808 about 3 years ago. For the money, it seemed like it would be hard to go wrong. The box is packed with features.

Everything worked fine for about 10 months, and then, out of the blue, I started to notice crackling in my recordings. They started out as a sporadic thing, and within a couple months I couldn't record more than 10 seconds without it sounding like I was making popcorn. I'm recording at home, very rarely more than two or three tracks at a time.

I tried to contact Phonic. Tried. Because, see, they don't exist. They're imported by US Music Corporation. Phonic will not give you support because they don't have a US presence. You can post on their international website, but at best you might get a message board response. After calling Musician's Friend (retailer the 808 was purchased from) and demanding information, I was given contact information for US Music Corporation. It took them weeks--I'm not exaggerating--WEEKS to troubleshoot my issues with me and eventually decide to just replace my 808. The crackling persisted regardless of hardware/software settings.

I received the new 808 (which I was told was actually a refurb) and it worked. Awesome. Until last month, when it started crackling again. I know... I'll look for software/driver updates on Phonic's website... Oh, right, their last driver updates are from over a year ago. I've once again fiddled with every hardware and software setting I can (buffer size, recording bitrate, and every other option Logic has), to no avail. The device is not usable at this point unless I want to record tracks with pops and crackles. Mind you, this is on a 2.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 iMac with 16GB RAM. I should have no problem trying to record ONE track at a time.

The same issue, on 2 devices? It can't be coincidence, can it?

Sadly, this time I have no warranty and I'm left saving up to buy a new interface, which will not be a Phonic. I would highly advise against purchasing any Phonic device if you value tech support/customer service, and if you value having things that work.

[Konsta_K]

Hi,

I'm rather intrigued by the firefly, since it's pretty much everything what I'm looking for in an interface. However, it'd be nice to hear some stuff done with it. The local retailers here don't have the unit for sale, so I'd have to order it without testing the sonic quality first. So if any of you have demos, projects, live performances, sound clips... basically anything recorded via firefly to ''sample'', it'd be greatly appreciated! Ideally without effects, EQ'ing and such.

- Konsta

[Travst]

 

Originally Posted by Whalebonemusic

Travst: I wouldn't get your hopes too high with respect to ADAT expansion. I'm now on my second unit, replaced by the store I bought it from. I have done absolutely everything recommended by the manufacturer, and still don't have a working ADAT connection to my other interface. I've spent days trying to make it work. It has been a frustrating experience to say the least. At this point, I'm considering treating the money I spent on the unit as a net loss and posting a video of me taking a chainsaw to the Firefly 808 on youtube.

 

I wanted to report in after trying to set up an ADAT connection between the Phonic and my ADA8000. I could not get the connection to work either. I tried setting up the ADA8000 as master and as slave to no avail. This is quite disappointing. I haven't contacted Phonic as yet, I'm curious as to what fixes they will suggest.

[Travst]

And now, I'm stuck with a blinking yellow light on the ADAT synch source, even though I've switched the mixer control software back to the Firefly unit. No matter what I do, this does not change. In its current state, I cannot use the Firefly at all. Even getting registered on the Phonic site is a problem since an admin must add me after registration so that I can contact support.

Can anyone shed light on this problem? Thanks!

[Travst]

 

Originally Posted by Travst

And now, I'm stuck with a blinking yellow light on the ADAT synch source, even though I've switched the mixer control software back to the Firefly unit. No matter what I do, this does not change. In its current state, I cannot use the Firefly at all. Even getting registered on the Phonic site is a problem since an admin must add me after registration so that I can contact support.

Can anyone shed light on this problem? Thanks!

 

To record this for posterity, the issue was solved by re-loading the drivers, switching the synch source to Device and the digital I/O to SMUX. After that, the Firefly worked perfectly.

[dmalerba]

 

Originally Posted by Ozols

Hello,

I am developing software which uses ASIO devices. So far I have tested it with a lot of devices and sometimes I stumble uppon problems with some interfaces. The Phonic Firefly 808 Universal seems to be one of them..

I use Windows 7 (64bit) and connect the 808 via USB.

I found out that problem occurs when the host application requests the device to change its sample rate (ASIOSetSampleRate()) which is different than the one in hardware.

The problem which causes crashes is that the next call to ASIOCreateBuffers() returns ASE_OK (no problem), BUT all the buffer pointers are "0"!!!

This is a serious bug not a compatibility issue!

Maybe there are some beta drivers or something I can try to fix this?

For those who are not programmers - please excuse me for polluting your thread! I am not saying the interface is bad or something, just that the ASIO driver could be flawed..

 

I had same problem with 5.21 drivers, try the 5.22.1 drivers and things should be fixed. Both JRiver and Foobar now autosample rate change correctly since updating.

USB driver http://www.mediafire.com/?io36ns9imqj7se2

F/W driver http://www.mediafire.com/?no4lbl2qoppz5ey

These were posted by Grant some time ago and for some reason Phonic has never upgraded their site to new drivers. These are current TheSycon drivers for phonic 808U and 808 for windows 7 32 and 64 bit.

Hope this helps. Let me know either way.

Dave

[ttperry]

My husband bought two firefly 808 U on amazon brand new. He plans to daisy chain them. The problem we're running into is our Mac G5 desktop refuses to recognize the unit when using the firewire connection. It is fine in USB, but he prefers firewire. I've emailed Phonic, but no reply. This thread actually is more informative than anything I found on their website. I noticed that you use Windows, but do you have any suggestions for installing the 808U on a mac using F/W? Thanks so much in advance.

[Anderton]

 

Originally Posted by ttperry

My husband bought two firefly 808 U on amazon brand new. He plans to daisy chain them. The problem we're running into is our Mac G5 desktop refuses to recognize the unit when using the firewire connection. It is fine in USB, but he prefers firewire. I've emailed Phonic, but no reply. This thread actually is more informative than anything I found on their website. I noticed that you use Windows, but do you have any suggestions for installing the 808U on a mac using F/W? Thanks so much in advance.

 

Phonic has a toll-free support number for customers in the USA. You can find the details here. In general, I think FireWire on the Mac has been problematic for those with the 808 but the company may have some insights on how to get it working. I believe the last Mac-related update for the 808 was posted on their site in 2010.

But...I had a dual G5 Mac for several years prior to getting an Intel Mac. I often found FireWire to be picky and some peripherals would work, some wouldn't. In one case I was able to fix a FireWire problem by adjusting a CPU setting. Eventually I ended up using USB whenever possible because operation was more reliable, which might be your solution as well. The performance advantages of FireWire over USB 2.0 are negligible unless you are recording lots of tracks simultaneously at high sample rates.

[Travst]

The Phonic is probably looking for a certain type of chipset, such as the Texas Instruments chipset. Most of this gear is built to a reference chipset and may not work with Apple's chipset. With Windows machines, this issue is solved by adding a firewire board to the computer. This may not be possible with a Mac.

[dmalerba]

 

Originally Posted by ttperry

My husband bought two firefly 808 U on amazon brand new. He plans to daisy chain them. The problem we're running into is our Mac G5 desktop refuses to recognize the unit when using the firewire connection. It is fine in USB, but he prefers firewire. I've emailed Phonic, but no reply. This thread actually is more informative than anything I found on their website. I noticed that you use Windows, but do you have any suggestions for installing the 808U on a mac using F/W? Thanks so much in advance.

 

I am currently using an Intel based Mac dual/triple booting both Mac OSX and Windows on it. I have no problem daisy chaining 2 F/W Firefly 808s on either Mac OSX Snow Leopard or Lion at sample rates up to 96K. Higher sample rates are not supported as bandwidth is too high for number of channels configured on Firefly. You can not daisy chain USB. So your options are limited and the G5 and OSX supported are unfortunately out of date for what you want to do.

Well there are several things to consider here:

1) G5 mac will only run Leopard. The real issue here. Snow Leopard and later versions of Max OSX run on Intel based macs. G5 is PPC based. The drivers under Leopard had Firewire Issues and did not support USB 2.0. So I would say improving mac so that you could run Snow Leopard (10.6.x) or Lion (10.7.x) is your best bet. Please noteif you decide later to use USB and give up on daisy chaining , then 10.7.4 is last release that will support Phonic Firefly 808U unless phonic upgrades firmware which they have said they will not do....go figure....

2) Please be advised if you get a newer Mac with Mountain Lion (10.8.x) and USB 3.0 you will not be able to support USB (Firefly Firmware Issue) but will be able to support F/W. I have not confirmed F/W support on Mountain Lion yet, but should by end of next week when I get new mac mini. But I will also try to run Lion on it along with a Windows 7 setup.

I have had no problems with F/W on Mac running OSX Snow Leopard or Lion on Intel based macs (mini or laptop), however, I do not know what software you are running that locks you into Mac OSX on G5 which may have to be upgraded also or influence your computer/OS upgrade path.

If you do talk with a Phonic Person in real time on the phone (see link from previous Anderton post), please stress to them that giving up support of Firefly 808U on Mac is unacceptable going forward and they should update their firmware which has lied dormant for over 2 years. The more complaints they hear maybe they will get off their butts and support their customers.

Hope this Helps,

Dave

[Anderton]

Dave - thank you very much for that extremely helpful post. Sometimes I think some of the smartest people in the world hang out on Harmony Central...

[luckyaua]

hi,

i'm a new italian forumer, so i've buy this interface after viewed this thd so thank to last 5.22.1 driver posted here i've resolved auto sample rate change problem.

I use this interface like a multichannel DAC from htpc to power amp for music and movies in Win 7 64bit HTPC.

So in jriver mc 17 or 18 all is ok both with stereo flac/ape etc...and movies 5.1 dts and dolby digital with ASIO...with wasapi no there are a lot of problem with sample rate and bitdepth et etc.

So for movies i use XBMC that don't use ASIO but only WASAPi and i can select only one pair of output 1/2 or 3/4 etc.. so with 5.1 movie tracks i've only 2.0 output

can onyone help me?

Another question:

i've flac tracks 44...96...192 Khz so the sample rate change automatically with jriver but only from 44 to 96khz for >96khz i've to change in mixer H-SPDIF but in this situation is all ok for tracks >176.4Khz.. but i've problem for tracks below 176.4Khz

[dmalerba]

 

Originally Posted by luckyaua

hi,

i'm a new italian forumer, so i've buy this interface after viewed this thd so thank to last 5.22.1 driver posted here i've resolved auto sample rate change problem.

I use this interface like a multichannel DAC from htpc to power amp for music and movies in Win 7 64bit HTPC.

So in jriver mc 17 or 18 all is ok both with stereo flac/ape etc...and movies 5.1 dts and dolby digital with ASIO...with wasapi no there are a lot of problem with sample rate and bitdepth et etc.

So for movies i use XBMC that don't use ASIO but only WASAPi and i can select only one pair of output 1/2 or 3/4 etc.. so with 5.1 movie tracks i've only 2.0 output

can onyone help me?

Another question:

i've flac tracks 44...96...192 Khz so the sample rate change automatically with jriver but only from 44 to 96khz for >96khz i've to change in mixer H-SPDIF but in this situation is all ok for tracks >176.4Khz.. but i've problem for tracks below 176.4Khz

 

Glad drivers are working for you. Wish Phonic would upgrade their site.

No comment on ASIO vs WASPI for 5.1 playback. Usually a limitation on software you are using.

High Speed configuration issues for 176.4/192 playback are a result of way unit has to reconfigure number of channels to support high speed playback. Phonic would have to redesign firmware to make transparent playback of all sample rates for 2 channel and 5.1 playback and that is not the product they are offering regardless of how they have marketed unit as an audio inteface, instead it is a recording/mixing unit with only restricted computer playback capabilities. Workaround would be to resample lower rate tracks to 176.4 with appropriate software/hardware if you can so you can keep Firefly in HS mode.

Dave

[luckyaua]

Thanks for reply.....

I could resample all track from 44,1 and 88,2 to 176,4Khz and all tracks 48 and 96 to 192Khz and set HS mode

For wasapi other brand M/Audio,EMU etc are more user friendly for driver so is more consumer oriented....wish Phonic do a step forward...to add featured more consumer.

The problem is that stero dac is too much on the market but multichannel are totally absent so i-ve choose a pro interface to do that.

Another function that i haven-t found and is present in other interface is the feature for assign output channel to master volume knob....

Thanks.

[hip63]

Hello all, it's my first post here!

I've been lucky enough to procure a pair of firefly 808u's for a mere total of $300. (Hate me if you wish!)

After I got the first one, I got a Rosewill brand firewire card (pci-express form factor) but then read here and elsewhere that firewire cards with the famed "TI" where supposedly better so I shelved the rosewill and installed an SGII firewire card with a TI chip (pci form factor). All seemed at first to work well laying some drum tracks but then later I noticed some slight "pops" when recording guitar and bass. I managed to filter them out via my daw software but still not a preferred method of course. Then I ran across a second unit at a too good of a price to pass up.  So now I had 2 units I was trying to daisy chain together but I started having issues getting them to play nice together. Basically the issue was I could not get them to sync (sync lights flashing on/off, mixer control panel GUI flickering, ect.). I even rebuilt my PC in an attempt to correct the issue (PC was due for a rebuild anyway) but it did nothing to correct the issue. Then I decided to try a swapping out the "TI" chipped pci firewire card for the afore mentioned Rosewill pci-x firewire card (with a Ricoh chipset BTW) and viola!!! The sync issue where instantly corrected (running the latest driver posted above btw). Can I has a 16 track? Yes I's can! Now honestly I haven't had an opportunity to do any heavy recording yet but I suspect my "popping" issue will be corrected as well. The moral of this story? Don't be afraid to try a non TI chipped firewire cards. Having the right firewire card can make a huge difference in how the units behave.

Disclaimer: Your actually mileage may vary!

P.S. - Something else I've done to get the most out of these interfaces is that I'm I'm scooping up some used Presonus Bluetube 2 channel tube preamps for cheap (avg about $70.00 a pop) that I'm running on the front end of these units. So yeah, by the time I'm done I'll have 16 track "tube" studio for less than a grand!!!

Yes, I'm a cheap bastard and I am loving it!

hip63

[hip63]

It appears a I can not edit my previous post but as a quick FYI, I tested with my 5 string bass and indeed the popping issue is gone. It's all good.

hip63

[pitch-bend]

I picked up 2 of these ridiculously cheap and figured I could resell them if they weren't any good, but I am pretty surprised by the 808u. The sound is great and the new drivers(Sept 2013) are solid. I actually got both running together and added a motu 828mk2 to both of them via ADAT. I was able to get 32 channels out into a mixer no problem! Haven't tried recording 32 channels going in, but I figure I'll never need that many tracks simultaneously anyways.

One huge plus I have found over other interfaces I've had is the ability to drive my AKG K240DF's loud enough. At 600ohm's these headphones need a good amount of power to drive to decent levels and the 808u does so admirably with no apparent noise or distortion.

The 808u also has a very full sound, so I was puzzled when I read Craig's rightmark results showing the 808u down -3db at 20hz. Those are pretty dismal figures and might make you think this interface would be pretty bass-light which it definitely is not. I decided to run my own rightmark tests and got very different figures that are more in line with what I am hearing. Here are the frequency response results:

 The response I got was actually down around -.05db at 10hz, so it does go pretty low. I got weaker than expected high frequency results though as the frequency was down -0.6db at 20khz and it starts rolling off at 14khz. Not horrible, but I thought it would be closer to -0.2db. I suspect it was because I only had some cheap 20ft long HOSA TRS cables to test with and that might have affected the highs a bit. Also the HF response never changed when testing with higher sampling rates, making me more suspicious of my cabling.  

 

All in all not a bad soundcard. The sound is real close to the Motu 828mk2's though maybe a touch fuller with a better soundstage. A good engineer can do great recordings with the 808u.

 

[martygras]

Hey gang, I'm considering buying a Phonic Firefly 808 Universal to use with an iPad Air running Auria as a DAW.
Does anyone have any comments regarding use with an iPad at all?

Thanks,
Marty

[rockstar_not]

I have tried calling Phonic's toll free number at nearly every hour of the day and it seems like it actually must just be off the hook all the time.  Constant busy ring-tone.

I want to know if there are Windows 8 drivers for the unit, or if the Win 7 drivers (USB) are working fine.  There is no information about Windows 8 drivers on the website, and I'm not sure that my tech support question to this regard will be answered since I have not yet purchased the unit.

If there might be anyone from Phonic still monitoring this thread, I can take my answer here, or point me to a FAQ post on your website, or a reply to my inquiry via e-mail are all usable for me.