I'm 100% behind that , I've been using the same interface for years and only now am I starting to notice the brittle digital characteristic of my preamp, software emulation and EQ can help this issue but the more surgery I do, the worse my sound becomes.

 

@Guitarmaniac64 I just got my used Art Pro MPA II ...
nice price too man.. about half the price new.. glad you mentioned that..

@Nimbuss you could always check out a good old standby.. the Steinberg UR22 ... around $150 new, and can be found
used even cheaper, if ebay and whatnot is available to you ... I have one.. and am fine with it.. though my budget
has improved recently, and I may be upgrading soon... I have few complaints about this cost effective little unit..

nice pres, stable asio...been very satisfied at this price point

@superliquidsunshine dammm bro you had to go and put me in a shopping mode.. $300? I'm in..

update: yeah checked ebay on the babyface.. cheapest is $315, and it's an auction...
may as well get the pro if you will end up paying $500 for a used interface...

 

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Go for it, all I can say. I was always from the faction "it's got to cost $2000 to be good" ... man, was I stupid! I run audient now, RME Fireface is catching dust

 

your the first person I've ever heard say that, do you work for them?

 

I can second the Art pre amp . pretty nice bang for the buck. I just purchased a UR242, haven't had much time to play with it yet to test the pre's in it. i was all set to buy a Presonus VSL 44 but read too many nightmare stories about driver for windows and lack of support ( which i believe as i have owned Presonus gear in the past) so on another forum here i thought about Focusrite but again heard many negatives about windows Drivers. the chap at the music shop i bought the UR sold me on the steinberg unit and so far so good , running projects at 96 samples that i had to run at 512 with my old Motu ultralite. depending on what happening with these pre's will determine if i get another Art pre or something else.

 

I have bought a new T1953 Behringer mic preamp six years ago on a sellers discount,great bargain.Some say its shit,some say its a gimmick,hell if you open it up it sure does look like a gimmick.

I didnt extensively mod it,just replaced the cheap chinese tubes with JJ tubes(30$) and the noise went away immediately.Its now a clean,pristine preamp.
Some guy even said it sounds exactly or even better than his Ampex 300 preamps that were used in Sinatra`s studios in New York.
He replaced the tubes with Ei Elite 12AX7EG tubes(around 100$ upgrade).
After that he bought three more and runs every sub on Mackie Onyx trough these on sub inserts.
His customers love it and he loves it.
You can get these units for really cheap on ebay or local flea markets.

Though like people have said go with Audient iD22,you get the most for your buck with this unit.

 

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I agree with the Audient recommendation, but I'd go for the id22, not id14. Skip that little presonus preamp. Save up for a used Presonus ADL600, if you're dead-set on purchasing tube, for the money. That's a sleeper! Full voltage; can do clean and warmy, line ins, inst ins. Run a mix through it, track stereo mic config, plug in a bass through its DIs, crank gain for smooth butter!

 

Last edited: Feb 20, 2016

You know my experiences with Presonus support are also superb.Very polite and fast those guys are(yoda).

 

Last edited by a moderator: Feb 20, 2016

+1 on Presonus support, they rock!

 

I recently got a Focusrite Saffire and i have to say im amazed at the preamps, utterly amazing, very high end sounding. The little usb boxs are cheap and very heavy duty. only issue with it is if you turn the preamp down to 0 sound still comes through but for me its not an issue. Highly recommend.

 

I am not a paid endorser for PreSonus. But I do endorse their jambalaya, I can only speak from personal experience and one other friend's experiences with their products.

 

Which model firewire or usb?

 

@Nimbuss..Where on the continent are you? If I can swing it in the next few weeks to get meself an RME UCX or an 802 I will give you my Babyface for a very fair price.

 

BTW, I have a motu 828 MKII for sale if you are interested. I didn't need that many I/O , so I bought the audient.

Right now the current offer to me is €275.

 

I'm in South Africa , drop me an inbox if you do proceed with your plans.

 

Last edited: Feb 20, 2016

Thanks for the offer, I run USB.

 

I like firewire more, still find it better than usb.