Tascam FW-1804

a pictorial teardown

The Tascam FW-1804 was an IEEE 1394 FireWire multichannel audio interface first introduced around 2003/2004. Housed in a 2u rackmount chassis, it featured 8x2 analog, 10x10 digital, and 2x4 MIDI inputs and outputs. Subjectively, its high quality front end easily surpassed the performance of most internal ISA and PCI sound cards I had used up until then. Sadly, the software drivers and low-latency performance were a unresolved weakness and it was not held in the studio for long. Here are some pictures I took of the unit back in 2007. I hope to upload RMAA audio measurements someday.

Burr-Brown PLL1700 multi-clock generator

AKM AK4384 DAC - 192kHz 24-bit 106dB DR

JRC NJM4580 op amps