You tell me about another product you own that is not the one I tested. Your sound card is older and has had frequent upgrades.
Direct monitoring is useful when you have an already advanced mix with a lot of plugins to avoid the singer or a guitarist, for example, to feel the latency. I do this a lot and it is very useful for me. I don't have to bounce the song. And I can monitor the instruments for the headphones.
Concerning the drivers, it is true that there were problems with Antelope but on the new updates the stability is much better according to the reviews I read on Audiofanzine France.
I also know that everyone will defend their choice. It's human but not always objective. And I don't pretend to be more objective than the others.
As I said, the sound card might have a problem. Or not.
I too record with insert or fxin plugins on my Discrete4 under win10 or my Mackie Onyx 1640I Firewire under win7 which dates from 2008 and whose latency is very low on my dual boot system.
On 16 channels it goes very well with plugins without latency thanks to modern processors.
My point is not to say that Presonus is crap. I have Presonus monitors. But the ears do not deceive. If the sound I hear in my monitors is bad, I send the product back. It's as simple as that.

 

Thanks for the info. MY new pc is a 10700 k with thunderbolt 3. I have to get a card since I did not want the onboard one.

As far as the no direct monitoring yes it is clearly stated that it does not need it since the latency is so low.
Also it will not work in stand alone mode. I don't need direct monitoring nor stand alone mode.

 

This is easy...

If you are running Mac just grab a UAD Apollo X interface, the one that best fits your needs and budget. Drivers are amazing and I track at 16 buffer all day on my M1 MBP laptop. It's easily as good are running PTHD for low latency tracking, but much cheaper and blazing fast with almost zero latency.

If you are on PC go RME. I've got my RME PCIe Madi card running at 32 buffer all day with ZERO issues teamed to an Orion 32. RME is absolutely the best on the PC side for rock solid drivers and low latency work. You can go RME interface only or RME card to your preferred converters depending on your needs.

Both these solutions are rock solid and you'll spend your time recording and producing rather than mucking about with driver issues and latency problems.

 

that’s why I went with RME over the others like UA and Antelope that give proper DSP stuff for the same price. I piss about with tech software and IT most days, I want to press at most 4 switches, load Cubase and make music

 

From what I have understood both Quantum models have the same driver. I guess every setup and every system can have it's own individual problems. Quantum is known for having excellent drivers for Windows, and it is one of the fastest thunderbolt audio interfaces in the world. People complaining about the converters on the Quantum are usually audio snobs that would not hear what they are claiming on a blind test. In other words just bullshit.
As to RME they seem to have good devices, but they also have issues sometimes with their drivers. And the price difference lets say between a RME Fireface UFX+ and a Quantum 2626 is very big. You can buy three Quantums for one RME Fireface UFX+. Usually people are not willing to pay that much for a home studio. Also the RME Babyface PRO FS is way overpriced, and only USB in 2021? Nahh

 

Last edited: Apr 10, 2021

I never talked about the converters but about the sound in my monitors with the same mix on two different sound cards. Nothing to do with what you say. When I say that there are too many highs and mids and not enough bass, it's probably my ears that are snobs. No need to be insulting.