Sometimes you run across an interface that you never knew existed. While I was aware of the Phonic Firefly 808 and 302 the 202 caught me, off guard. It’s a curious little device from the days of firewire past.
Jackbox: Testing setup
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 1700 | ||
| RAM | Corsair LPX 16GB | ||
| Motherboard | MSI B350 Tomahawk | ||
| GPU | Nvidia Quadro 4000 | ||
| SSD | Samsung 840 | ||
| PSU: | EVGA 600 B1 | ||
| Firewire: | Syba SY-PEX30016 | ||
| Network: | Intel i350-T4 | ||
| OS: | Debian Buster | ||
| Kernel: | 5.4.47-rt | ||
| Desktop: | XFCE 4.12 | ||
Phonic Firefly 202: Round-trip latency @44100 HZ
Phonic Firefly 202: Round-trip latency @48000 HZ
Phonic Firefly 202: Round-trip latency @96000 HZ
Conclusion:
At the end of the day you have a chonky bus-powered metal box limited by 1/4-inch jacks and no access to the internal mixer. Granted, the Firefly 202 works out of the box if you can live with those restrictions.
I would only suggest buying one if you were in the market for a novelty foot warmer.
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Phonic Firefly 202
Pros
Plug and Play with FFADO drivers.
Bus-powered
Good for vocals
Cons
No external controls (minus headphone)
Does not work with FFADO-Mixer
Instruments sound a bit muddy
Gets hawt
