So, what's your opinion?

 

I have a UR22 and a Komplete Audio 6 which are both phenomenal. I wrote a review of the UR22 MK1 some time ago if that helps you decide: https://www.joelcarlo.net/steinberg-ur22-usb-audio-interface-review/

 

Definitly the Audient iD4. Yes, it is a pretty basic soundcard, but damn... nothing beats its preamp for this price !

 

+1, hands down

 

Consider the Zoom U 44, the most portable and complete (in features) audiocard in the market.
And the preamps are the same of the renowned Zoom H6!
Very affordble (that is sincerely unbelievable).
I have it since september and I love it.

• 4 in/out
• clever routing
• DJ friendly
• standalone AD/DA converter
• very stable ASIO driver
• SPDIF and optical digital in/out
• 24bit/96khz
• it works flawlesy also on iOS, as I know is the only audiocard for iPad/iPhone with both analog and digital ports
• midi in/out

 

@erminardi
Can you post any screenshots of the U-44 driver's control panel?
Thanks.

 

Audient iD4 looks awfull, read about some input volume bugs on gearslutz.

Myself am curently looking at the presonus audiobox 22vsl or the mackie onyx blackjack.

there is a big price difference between those two but the presonus one comes with a bunch of useless software.

those two have the beter specs that I've read from several (user-) reviews
(mind the VSL title on the presonus one)

since diffrent people brought their interface to my plaece since my preamps have died.
I got to test the focusrite scarlet vs icon global utrack vs mbox2 pro

the Mbox2 pro was the best on audio fidelity, considered it is at least 7 years old that is quite impressive.


the focusrite scarlet was not that good and lost on all competitions.


so, If I would go on looks I would go for the new m-audio m-track 2x2m.

 

Last edited: Nov 20, 2016

I have the Blackjack. If you're on Mac and don't need midi, just get it. It works flawlessly, it's cheap, has great preamps and it's built like a fucking tank. On Windows, however it's another story. The drivers are known to be "fiddly", and they stopped support for anything above Win7 x64 (not that I care). It refused to work in a couple of i5-750 setups I had back then, and in my current machine it only works flawless in the USB 3.0 port (which is weird enough since it's an USB 1.1 interface).

Sooo, my best advice would be to buy it from a place you can return it if it doesn't work in your system. If it does, it truly is impressive for the price you pay. I'm really happy with mine and the angled "mixer-like" knobs are really convenient.

 

USB is backwards compatible, but if you plug a slower usb device in, it slows that whole hub down to that speed. The hub on your mobo. My mobo has 3 usb hubs. I use a separate hub for my 2.0 (or older) devices. And only 3.0 devices go on the 3.0 hub.

My next audio device will most definitely be pc/thunderbolt compatible.

 

Last edited: Nov 20, 2016

these type of comments is one of the reason i love this forum, random information, but totally priceless!

Thank you guys,

Anyway here's some good stuff :

https://www.thomann.de/fr/focusrite_scarlett_2i2_2nd_gen.htm

https://www.thomann.de/fr/tascam_ixr.htm

https://www.thomann.de/fr/steinberg_ur242.htm

https://www.thomann.de/fr/tascam_us_4x4.htm

Now choose your Audio interface depending on what you use, what you need and what you're planning to do in the future...

good luck friend!

 

Maybe you could find a used RME Babyface for $200. That would be marvelous. Mine is now five years old and plays still like a champ, RME still supports the drivers and the preamps are clean with a pleasing sound. I have a few other "better" preamps, but with some microphones I like what I hear better with the Babyface. It would well be worth your while to find one, take it home and make some killer tunes.

 

Also in search for a card around that price tag (can be a bit higher), I wonder:
Why and if an USB 3.0 would be better than 2.0??

was looking at Zoom UAC-2 https://www.thomann.de/de/zoom_uac_2.htm?ref=search_prv_5
BTW any thoughts on this one - it is just under 200€

and the (pricier) Presonus Studio Mobile 192, RME also has a 3.0 interface but they are not really like a new standard, a must (like with external drives and such..)

Can't be preamps or similar.. they somehow imply lower latency but then I do not understand why the manufacturers like focusrite etc. stick to USB 2.0. This really confuses me for some time now. Any thoughts?

Edit: BTW, I am on PC/WIN, so no mac-only connections available

 

Wow, so many informations and opinions. Thank you guys. I will look them all before I decide. Also I was looking for the NI Komplete Audio 6. I wonder If anyone has any kind of experience with this audio interface so he can tell me. Thank you.

 

To me it hardly depends what you wanna do with it.

Are you searching for the best audio interface for routing, I/O for 150-200?$
Or are you searching for the best audio interface for real time performance, processing power, lowest latency, good driver support etc?

If you save up more you can get one that can do both greatly,

consider this too! Let's be real you wont get any surprise for that price if you dont do something like this

 

Not big experience but some, one of my friends had it in his home studio, spent some hours with it.
It performed pretty good, especially the virtual side, good driver, good latency, very good CPU ratio in realtime!

 

Line6 UX2. 2 in 2 out. Mic + 48v, line, guitar and SPDif. Good drivers, Pod Farm plugin. Zero latency monitoring with FX. Not just for guitarists.

 

At this price I don't expect crazy things. In terms of connectivity all I want to connet is the monitors and sometimes a mic. That's it, so I don't even care about that.

 

So if you're mostly working ITB search for an Audio 6 or some RME, little MOTUs, you're searching for little cards with few I/O but with good realtime capabilities and drivers support (to avoid 100% CPU in DAWs), TC electronics or other mid/high end brands can be considered too in your case/budget, only battle-scarred ones though!

Maybe saving just a little more (250/300) would be real good to get access to used high end cards

 

Yeah, I know all of that. But wouldn't it be nice that the card just worked normally on a USB 2.0 port instead of wasting a 3.0 slot for a 1.1 device?

 

I switched from the Blackjack to the iD4. Big difference in sound, and I'm not just talking about the preamp. The most obvious difference is in the highs. The iD4 unfortunately doesn't have a dedicated volume knob for the headphones, but the two headphone jacks and the ability to mute the speakers with a button press more than makes up for it. both have direct monitoring, which can be a godsend in certain circumstances