Audio Interface Recommendations?

The Focusrite Saffire Pro line gets a lot of love here.
I have the Saffire Pro 24 and I can only say very good things about it.

Quote from Ingolf

The Focusrite Saffire Pro line gets a lot of love here.
I have the Saffire Pro 24 and I can only say very good things about it.

Agreed

Another one is the focusrite scarlett series, most saffires are firewire (but I think there is a usb version too).

Do you know the Tascam US-366?

I am using Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 USB with Windows 7 after using Focusrite Saffire 24 Pro DSP. Very good interface.

Another Focusrite user here. I have a Saffire Pro 40 and If it broke down I would buy another...

As another solution.. you could buy a 64/128 track SSL Desk that has built in direct console tracking to your computer of choice..

Its about £230K. so real budget stuff!

Quote from and44

As another solution.. you could buy a 64/128 track SSL Desk that has built in direct console tracking to your computer of choice..

Its about £230K. so real budget stuff!

Yeah, only for the budget minded

Although I'd take out an extended warranty for the converters' sake; my Nucleus A/D died on me, and it's going to cost me at least £300 plus postage and packaging from DK to UK and back! Gutted. I'm thinking of getting an ID22...

Saffire Pro range is good but they are firewire and the preamps are not great IMHO, pretty thin sounding. I would invest in an external preamp if you go for any of the focusrite interfaces. Unless you are going SPDIF in from the Kemper.

TC Electronic Konneckt have better pres in my experience and as most of them have been discontinued you can get a bargain.

I hear very good things about the Audient and the SPL USB interfaces.

I have been using an Apogee Duet 2 for 4 years now and have nothing but good things to say about it.

Now they have upgraded the family of Duet and have more choices with the Quartet.

Again, not having used anything else of that quality before, my opinion is worth what it's worth.

I love my UAD Apollo interface.

I've had a MOTU 8pre for close to about 7 years now. It has never let me down. The preamps in it sound great and it works like a champ. 8 1/4" or XLR ins, optical for whatever you use optical for, phone out, and two monitor outs. However, those monitor outs just send a line level out, so they can be used for reamping. I've been debating going to the Apogee Quartet, but, as a Kemper owner now, I feel like I need something with SPDIF built-in, and, unfortunately, while it's a stellar interface, it lacks that. That's ok though, those Focusrite Scarlett interfaces are nice (and much cheaper).

+1 for Focusrite. I have recently bought a Scarlett 6i6, too, and the KPA runs through my system via s/pdif. Two great things about the Scarlett:

• True Stereo on the monitor way

Which suprisingly many interfaces do not have (e.g. the Steinberg stuff in the lower price region or the presonus budget devices). Other interfaces do the hardware monitoring mono and sum it up to a pseudo-stereo image, which is crap for mixing and sound details.

Secondly:

• The monitor is also working on the s/pdif

Which is not common given the price. Though there must be some kind of latency because of the conversion, I do not feel it - and I am very picky when it comes to latency. My computer is not the newest one, and I can run Cubase, You Tube, and the Kemper simultaneously without any negative interference. That was not possible with my Native Instruments K6 interface, though other people seem to have good experiences with that one. It also has true stereo on the monitor btw. But NI was not helpful, I mailed them several times and all I got was a strange workaround where I should install a lot of software to check out my pc. They finally stopped answering, I also cannot recommend M-Audio since they have a very bad driver support. You will never know, if their devices will stand against the next windows update. Happened to me and a lot of others as can be read in their forums.

greetings

UAD Apollo, one of the best interfaces around.

Quote from guenterhaas

UAD Apollo, one of the best interfaces around.

I'm on the fence between an Apollo Twin Duo and the Audient ID22. The Audient is supposed to have excellent preamps and converters, whereas UA's converters consistently grade averagely in loop back tests. I'm not a cork sniffer when it comes to converters, but have you ever noticed anything untoward, Guenter?

Having said that, though, I might just end up with the Scarlett 6i6, due to the coaxial spdif, not to mention the price. I only need an interface for recording jams at home. Any serious recording will be done out at my work studio.

@ sambrox:
cannot quote for some reason, my text seems gone also... so in short: the 6i6 is doing a great job and works flawlessly. together with the kemper you can record at pro level via s/pdif. plus you get some useful plug ins with it. the audient features optical ins/outs though and you could get a converter optical > s/pdif. these are not too expensive and work great without any sound loss.

greetings

Quote from sambrox

I'm on the fence between an Apollo Twin Duo and the Audient ID22. The Audient is supposed to have excellent preamps and converters, whereas UA's converters consistently grade averagely in loop back tests. I'm not a cork sniffer when it comes to converters, but have you ever noticed anything untoward, Guenter?

Having said that, though, I might just end up with the Scarlett 6i6, due to the coaxial spdif, not to mention the price. I only need an interface for recording jams at home. Any serious recording will be done out at my work studio.

I used to work with the RME Fireface 400, now I'm using the Apollo Twin Duo, both interfaces have excellent converters. The Apollo is state-of-the-art and and it's running fast and stable via Thunderbolt on my Macs. Of course one big advantage is the option to use UAD-plugins.