Sound quality through Firewire device (Presonus Inspire)

I have a Presonus Inspire as a Firewire audio interface which works fine, except for one thing. So far, I have been using the internal headphone jack for monitoring, but I seem to run into the infamous problem of dropouts and cracks that Apple has acknowledged when using different routes for audio input and output. However, when I monitor through the headphone jack of the Inspire, the sound is quite different - I'm missing a lot of the low frequencies, it just doesn't sound right. Any ideas?
(Since the interface is rather new on the market, I might have to turn to the Presonus support instead - but if anyone has an idea, that would be appreciated!)

There are basically two ways to listen to your recording: direct and monitored. Direct is when the device you're using (the Presonus) sends it's capture directly to it's headphone output. The music is sent to the Presonus so you can hear it. "Monitored" is when you listen to what the computer sends to the Presonus device. Turn on the track monitor toggle and as you record, the computer applies any and all effects you've specified, then sends all signals back to the Presonus headphone jack.
It sounds like this is the difference you're hearing.
I use a Tascam US-122 and plug the headphones into it and listen directly to what I'm playing. The USB connection causes latency when there are a lot of track being played.

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Dear Folks,
OK, the saga continues. Bought a Presonus Inspire 1394 A-D -> Firewire unit for digitizing my vinyl. Got it hooked up to my stereo and my MacBook Pro fine. Directed Audio MIDI setup to make this the default input and output device. Ditto with MacOS's Sound control panel. Set the sample rate to 48kHz, 24 bit. Unit plays just fine, VU meters in the Inspire control panel look good, output through my speakers sounds good.
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Dear Po,
Basic questions are OK. I figured this has to be one of those "is it plugged in?" stumbling blocks.
And you got me to the right plug!
I checked the track info panel, and it's set to Inspire input channels 1 & 2 (front panel mike/instrument inputs), instead of 3 and 4 (back panel phono/line inputs)!
I changed it to channels 3 & 4 and it records just fine.
(Now I gotta figure out how to make those the input channels in my other apps... but at least I know the problem fix.)
Thanks! And g'night.
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Sound quality through Firewire device (Presonus Inspire)

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