Sweeeeeeeeeeeet 
by ms2000guy from Northern VA, December 2007
Music Background:  Synthesizer hobbyist

This unit is awesomeeeeeeeeeee. It is one of the few audio interface that works with Mac OS X Leopard out of the box. You have to change a few settings, but its all in the manual. It also has MIDI port built in!

  Perfect for Mac OS X Users 
by TooManyToys from Dallas, TX, June 2006
Music Background:  Educator

As a guitarist who was looking for a high quality, portable, and low-latency audio interface, I was sold on the FA-66 for two reasons that set it apart from the others (MOTU, M-Audio, Presonus).

(1) It's class compliant with Mac OS X, which means there are no drivers required (or even available; it doesn't need them). Compatibility is built into OS X for this unit, which is pretty sweet.

(2) It is safely hot-pluggable, which most Firewire Audio devices aren't. Edirol has built in protection circuitry that other units do not have. As another safeguard, it has an off-switch that completely shuts off the unit, so hot-plugging is 100% safe.

These might seem like minor reasons to be sold on a product, but these were two things I wanted, so it works for me. It sounds great, it's small, and it's red! What more could you want?

Mic amplitude problem 
by David Deneau from Tennessee, May 2006

I talked to a Sweetwater rep and he said the problem was caused by my use of a TRS cable into the FA-66. I switched to an XLR cable and the gain problem on the pre-amps was solved.

Optical Cables 
by David Deneau , April 2006

Make sure you get a TosLink cable instead of an ordinary optical cable.

The correct Sweetwater cable is OPQ215.
The incorrect cable is OPM310.
The connectors are different.

Amazingly frustrating 
by Steven Piantadosi from Chapel Hill NC, April 2006

I bought an FA-66 with the hope of recording off my laptop, a dell Inspiron 5150. Recording sounded great and would work fine for about 10 minutes, and then it would start to "skip" and the sound would get distorted. I fussed with my system settings for a week and called tech support. They told me to buy a new firewire card and more RAM (I had 512 mb). So I bought a gig of RAM and a new firewire card and the problem was not fixed. I called again and they told me that maybe it just wouldn't work with my computer and that I should buy a new computer, dedicated to recording. That is to say, their tech support is essentially worthless. If you want something reliable, do not buy this product.

Nice Box 
by David Deneau from Morristown, TN, March 2006

I studied several different products (firewire and USB) and decided to go with the FA-66 because of the Sonar LS included. I am a Sonar 1.3.1 user. I followed the install directions and had some compatibility issues. For example, I had to use the MME drivers instead of WDM. Also, I was unable to use 24 bit driver depth. These problems were with the version of Sonar I was using, and not with the FA-66. Other applications worked fine. Headphone latency is zero, and through Sonar the latency is very low. I am very pleased with the FA-66 even using my current version of Sonar. I'm anxious to see what the included upgrade does. I run a Sony Vaio A-190, 512 mb RAM, 80 gb drive, 1.7 mhz Pentium M, 400gb external storage, and a Shure SM-57 mic. I use the box as a backup band for practicing bluegrass guitar, fiddle and mandolin. I also do a little recording. One other thing of note, the preamp does not seem to amplify sufficiently, so I have to run the audio through a compressor or amplifier on playback. My nex purchase will be a condensor mic to see if that helps alleviate the amplitude problem. Overall, I'm very satisfied with the FA-66.

Awesome interface 
by Anonymous from sacramento, ca, December 2005

I know Im going to seem like a schill for edirol here, but I have to say this thing has changed my mind about computer recording. Ive spent a ton on gear in the past few years and most of the interfaces I have tried cheap and expensive are too frustrating. Most sound like crap, work like crap, or if they sound good have horrible features or are way expensive. I was blaming my software when it was the interface all this time.

This baby fixes all that. I have everything I need in a tight little package. And the thing just sounds great. And I never need to tweak.

Monitoring is awesome.
Latency is nonexistent.
The built in limiter saves so much time.
And the phantom power and midi make the package complete.

I cant say enough I LOVE this thing. Buy it now,
good products are frequently discontinued! And you wont find mine on ebay anytime soon.

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