How to choose a good Sound Card

[Mohammadyarahmad]

I bought an Audient ID4 MKII,
In a sentence, it's brilliant!
It provides more than enough headroom for my headphones( AKG K701).
They perfectly match.

[Mohammadyarahmad]

A big step up from your Presonus Interface would be a Audient Id14 mk2, what I owned and what’s now my brothers Interface. It’s has really nice preamps and Converter quality is on par with my RME FirefaceUC, the preamps sounding better with my SE 2200t tube mic than the RME ones.

The driver and virtual mixer is very comfortable to use, really fast latency’s, it comes with 2 mic inputs, one of them usable for a guitar, + spdif digital Adat input, if you one upgrade your inputs, a separate master out and headphone output, no midi in and out, one stepped volume dial, usb C bus powered, the predestor had a power supply.

The headphone output of this interface is strong enough to drive my beyerdynamic DT880pro 250ohm. really well.

For me it’s more or less the best interface in this price range I tried. Still using a old first gen RME babyface with my ipad and the Audient sounds better, especially the headphone preamp!

So for example, a Behringer 404hd of a friend of mine, has great preamps, but the output preamps are more semi nice, not the big thing, the Scarlett’s output stage sound maybe a bit better but also not so much, but we only used the first gen of the small one focusrite…

A Jamsession colleague with a Linux Bitwig Machine switched from a entry level m-audio fast track to a native audio kontrol1 and the difference in details and pressure on his BX4 speakers from 2023 are so huge, like night and day, keep in mind when you think both interfaces are released 2005-2007.

So what’s the hack with interfaces, converters are no longer the big thing, but input and output stages of entry level 100 bugs interfaces are mostly not so powerful and still failing in articulation and precision. Arround 200bugs there is no big difference between MOTU or Audient, ESI especially when it comes to long time driver support und musicality of their electronics. I don’t know how nice are expensiver lines from presonus and focusrite, but i thing they are as well good interfaces. It depends at least what’s your needs. So don’t buy please the new m-audio stuff horrible and native stuff now the same cheap thing. The cheaper universal audio interfaces are as well marketing hyped and you get them on eBay around 80-90bugs or less here in Germany of it’s quality My hint, save money a little longer for a better interface, and you will be happy much longer with it .

Nice start in the new week fellows

But there is a problem.
There is a USB-C to USB-C cable in it.
I have to use a USB-C to USB-A cable because I work with Windows(no Mac OS)

[Mohammadyarahmad]

What kind of cable should I use?
The manual says :

BUS POWER:
MIN REQUIREMENT:0.9A @ 5V >=USB 3.0 Port
MAX REQUIREMENT:1.5A @ 5V USB-C: Provides higher headphone outputs levels

Important note - The USB-A connector must be able to provide 900ma of current (as specified in the USB3.0 specs). A vast majority of USB-A ports on computers from the last 6-7 years will be able to provide this.

Can I use a fast-charging phone cable?

[RobC]

If headphone amp was all you needed, then the L30 II might have been a wiser choice.

[moalla]

I bought an Audient ID4 MKII,
In a sentence, it's brilliant!
It provides more than enough headroom for my headphones( AKG K701).
They perfectly match.

Glad to hear, that your happy with your new interface

[Mohammadyarahmad]

If headphone amp was all you needed, then the L30 II might have been a wiser choice.

Presonus USB96 is quite a garbage. With Audient my speakers also are much louder. IDK what's the problem with USB96.

[Mohammadyarahmad]

I bought an Audient ID4 MKII,
In a sentence, it's brilliant!
It provides more than enough headroom for my headphones( AKG K701).
They perfectly match.

Glad to hear, that your happy with your new interface

Thanks