ART TubeFire 8

This is a 1U rackmount unit with 8 tube preamps and firewire connectivity so it can serve as a complete audio interface. Individual LED VU meters on each channel with separate gain and output controls. Gain drives the valves, and output controls the level to the output jacks and A/D converter. No digital connectivity other than firewire.

Units can be daisy chained via firewire, but there is no other digital functionality.

The preamps are strong and clear. They can be driven to distortion when desired. I agree with the previous review regarding the monitoring capabilities. If there is a weak spot, that is it. Well worth the money, though, for a bank of 8 powerful preamps. The A/D converters and firewire are just gravy.

A/C powered with a removable power cord. No wall warts here. (yea!)
48V phantom power available on all 8 inputs, switchable in banks of four.

Up to 96KHz/24 bit processing supported. Basically plug and play for a mac. Couldn't be easier to use. No drivers required. Again, monitoring options hold it back. ART should provide a dedicated set of balanced main outs via a 9/10 channel. Then this would be an ideal machine.

Came with Cubase LE4, which I am using for now. Works seamlessly with it.

I mic live drums in my home studio with this, so the monitoring in this application has not been critical. The preamps are wonderful, and the A/D converters seem clean and accurate. The drums sound much more punchy through this thing than ever before. For me, this is a keeper. I prefer these pre's to the ones in my FW-1884, so I run it's outputs into that and use the FW converters when I need the control surface. That also solves the monitoring issues while letting me use these pre's. If this device was stolen, I would definitely replace it in kind. You can't get 8 pre's that are this strong (75db gain) with tube warmth/distortion available for this price, let alone a firewire interface. Great value for the home gamer.

Valve multi-channel mic pre-amp with firewire, 8 line in/outs. 19" Rack 1U. Has VU meters, 10db pad, bass pad and invert on all 8 channels. Phantom power on all mic inputs grouped into 1-4, 5-8 (ie. 2 switches). First 2 channels have instrument level on 6.3mm jack at the front. 8 x Balanced TRS/XLR inputs on the back. 8x TRS balanced outputs on the back. 2x Firewire. 2x clock. Each pair of channels is selected to headphone/line output and is switched for mic input or firewire input. Solid and smart black front. Solid feeling knobs. Generally looking and feeling good quality. Writing a little difficult to read. Switches all light up.

See above for details.

It is what it hasn't got and doesn't do that is most important.

Firstly it really should have balanced line-out for the mix. If you want to listen to your mix from the computer (firewire in) this takes 2 of the eight channels making them unavailable for recording. To listen to these channels you then can monitor in 2 ways, via the stereo headphone/lineout socket on the front and/or by the selected stereo channel using the line outs at the back. If you use the latter you cannot hear the other channels and would possibly also have to plug & unplug cables. Also you have no hardware control of the line out level. Monitoring from the front headphone channel is not really good enough. Other connections are excellent with 8 preamps lineouts (not just to firewire)

Preamps seem to be good and quiet with a only little hiss if you turn them right up. For normal recording levels they seem just fine. I would be interested to know if upgrading the valves would make it even more impressive. For this sort of money I am more than happy although I have never used any really expensive gear to compare with. It is however an improvement on my Alesis Multimix's preamps.

The unit is quite deep from back to front and runs fairly warm, but not hot. All the hardware seem of good quality. The only slight quality niggle is that switching the 7/8 i/o switch makes quite a loud click.

Another small niggle is the stereo/mono headphone vol. If you are overdubbing you can either listen to the DAW output in stereo and have the track you are recording in only one ear (Left for tracks 1,3,5,7 and right for 2,4,6,8) or you can have the DAW in mono and the overdub in both ears.

Power is supplied via standard 3 pin kettle lead. No wall warts or floor lumps. Yippee! Not bus-powered. I don't think I would want to run all those valves(4) from my pc. More options is not always better!

Sample rate choices are 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96 and are setup in the software only. Bit depth 24. PC driver install couldn't have been easier although I couldn't find any drivers or updates on ART's website.

Included in the box are the unit itself, power cable, fairly short firewire cable, drivers disk, cubase LE disk (which I won't use) and short but clear instruction manual.

Except for the lack of balanced mix output this is a well featured and quality piece of kit. I considered the obvious competitors Focusrite 10/10, presonus 8 thingy, and even the Mackie 12 (too dear for me). For me the meter on each channel is important and clinched the deal. Now I have got it all the lighty-up switches are nice. I will use it in 2 ways. Stand alone for recording small projects and as 8 extra mic preamps for the Alesis Firewire.

ART need to think hard about including balanced outputs with level control for studio monitors and also maybe bring the digital input from the DAW into a permanent stereo channels 9 and 10 to remove this mono/stereo overdub problem.