Focusrite Saffire Pro 24
Two Focusrite preamps, sixteen inputs, eight outputs — the FireWire box that made a serious front end affordable for the project studio.
Overview
The Saffire Pro 24 is a FireWire audio interface built around two Focusrite mic preamps, and the company's own promotional material leaned hard on that heritage — the Saffire range advertising reminded buyers that Focusrite had been designing mic pres for over 25 years and called the preamps the heart of any good interface. That's marketing copy, not a verdict, but the pitch landed with a specific audience: the project-studio owner who wanted a credible front end without a rack full of outboard.
The numbers tell the practical story. Focusrite's own range documentation lists the Pro 24 as a 16-input / 8-output interface with two Focusrite preamps, and pairs it with an ADAT input — the detail that gives the box its reach for the money. Sixteen inputs on a two-preamp interface only makes sense because the ADAT port lets owners bolt on an external converter and expand later, which is exactly the upgrade path a home studio wants. The preamps themselves are described in the range literature as based on Focusrite's preamp legacy, and the sales copy claims the two preamps capture every subtle nuance of an audio source — take that for what it is.
The Pro 24 sat at the affordable end of a clearly tiered Saffire family. The range documentation places the flagship Liquid Saffire 56 at 28 in / 28 out with two Liquid and six Focusrite preamps, the Saffire Pro 40 at 20 in / 20 out with eight Focusrite preamps, and then the Pro 24 DSP and the plain Pro 24 side by side — both 16 in / 8 out with two preamps, the DSP version distinguished by VRM technology. A fifth model, the Saffire Pro 14, rounded out the line at 8 in / 6 out with two preamps. The Pro 24 was the value entry into a real FireWire ecosystem rather than a throwaway starter box.
That DSP sibling matters for anyone shopping used today, because the two models look nearly identical and the difference is the whole point of the DSP badge. Focusrite's launch copy for the Pro 24 DSP describes Virtual Reference Monitoring as letting a user mix through a choice of more than 15 different sets of commonly used professional studio monitors and hi-fi speakers, in different acoustic environments and from different positions — all auditioned over headphones. EQ (August 2010, p.5) built an entire advertisement around that idea, framing the DSP as a studio control room in your headphones for the producer mixing at 11pm with neighbors asleep. If a listing advertises VRM and the price looks too good, check the model number before assuming the plain Pro 24 does the same thing. It doesn't — VRM is the DSP model's feature, and the range documentation is explicit about the split.
On conversion, the Pro 24 DSP is documented as a 24-bit, 96kHz interface, and the plain Pro 24 shares the same 16-in/8-out architecture and preamp count; owners should confirm the sample-rate spec on the specific unit's documentation before assuming parity across the pair. The range's higher-tier models advertised 24-bit/192kHz conversion with JetPLL jitter elimination, but that language belongs to the Pro 40 and Liquid 56 in the promotional material, not to the Pro 24 — a distinction worth keeping straight when a seller quotes the family's headline specs at you.
Mix (March 2015, p.58) reviewed the Saffire Pro 24 alongside the 26 and 40 and noted that each offers a phantom-powered mic preamp accessible through the XLR, with the Saffire MixControl application switching between line and instrument signals when a connection to the 1/4-inch jack is detected — while pointing out there is no way to bypass that input path. It's a fair summary of the workflow: MixControl is where the routing lives, and it's both the interface's strength and the thing new owners have to learn. The same review observed that some professionals were disappointed when Focusrite moved toward the project-studio market, feeling the early offerings in that segment fell short of the company's pro heritage. That's the tension baked into any Saffire purchase — you're buying the Focusrite name at a project-studio price, and the period press was candid about the gap.
Where the Pro 24 earns its keep is as a working FireWire interface with genuine Focusrite preamps and an expansion path. Where it demands caution is age. These are FireWire devices, and FireWire support has thinned out on modern operating systems — prospective buyers should verify driver compatibility with their machine before committing, because a perfectly healthy interface with no working driver is a doorstop. The fact sheet carries no driver-compatibility documentation, so that homework falls to the buyer.
Collectors and project-studio hands tend to treat the Saffire line as honest utility gear rather than objects of desire, and the Pro 24 fits that read: two good preamps, a generous I/O count for the money, and a software mixer that rewards the owner who takes an afternoon to learn it. It isn't the flagship and it was never meant to be. It's the box that got a lot of people recording.
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