Which is better for an external pro audio card, FireWire or USB?

Firewire is 400 mb/s and USB is 12 mb/s.  USB 2.0 claims to be 480 mb/s but in real-world testing is slightly slower than Firewire in many cases.  If you go the USB route, make sure you know if it's 1.0 or 2.0!

Watch for Firewire 800 as well. Its fairly new and my iMac doesn't have a port for it, but its even faster than the 400 (obviously).

I don't think anyone makes Firewire 800 audio gear.  It's even uncommon to find an external hard drive.  It's been out for years and even Apple isn't really pushing it- I think because actual tests show it performs nowhere near the claimed 800 mb/s and requires yet another connector on a computer.  Most PCs only come with USB 2.0 which is backwards compatible with 1.0.  Then you have companies like Sony that further confuse everyone by calling firewire ";i.Link";

For the record, I'm using HI-Speed (v2) USB for my soundcard - the Edirol UA-101.  They make effectively the same card in both FW and USB.

For me, it's key that even if it was USB1 - low speed - my card would still function at 44100 stereo with one pair out.  At high speed, I have 10 outs at 96k, or I can do 5.1 with 6 outs at 192k sample rate.

The problem for me on Windows is that FireWire is a lot less prevalent.  I have one FW port, but 14 USB.  My laptop has 0.  My other laptop has 0.  My mac has 1.  So if I'm going to want less hassle moving my card or traveling, it's gotta be USB.

That said, there's about 0 performance difference.  It's just data push.  Firewire just seems to be easier to get with audio, but to me, once you have a card, it's about what makes most sense when it's in need of being plugged in...

[quote author=Jedi link=topic=1495.msg6975#msg6975 date=1168282721]
I don't think anyone makes Firewire 800 audio gear.�� It's even uncommon to find an external hard drive.�� It's been out for years and even Apple isn't really pushing it- I think because actual tests show it performs nowhere near the claimed 800 mb/s and requires yet another connector on a computer.��
[/quote]

That'll teach me to listen to the Best Buy guy:)