MOTU UltraLite-mk5 Review (Audio Interface)

[zhora]

@amirm thank you, I missed that there's a second pair of images when I went through the review first time.

 

[ayane]

Oh that anti-aliasing filter is just glorious :')

 

[SylphAudio]

Great ADC performance. Looks cheap enough as an interface for doing amplifier measurements. Time to ditch my Motu M4 Thanks Amir!

 

[Matias]

Thanks! By the way the RME ADI-2 Pro is missing in the audio interfaces SINAD graph.

 

[phoenixsong]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the MOTU UltraLite-mk5 Audio Interface (ADC, DAC and headphone amplifier). It was kindly purchased new by a member and drop shipped to me for testing. It costs US $595.

I like that the UltraLite-mk5 comes in metal chassis but otherwise, it doesn't look exciting with its black and white screen:

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There are a lot of inputs and outputs here:

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It may be a pilot error but I was unhappy to plug the thing in and not have Windows recognize it. Fortunately their download package and control app is pretty small. Once there, Windows recognized it as well as having the usual ASIO interface that I used for my testing. Upon starting its control app, it offered to update itself which I let it. Was nice to see online update this way.

There was something strange that I had not seen before. As I was testing the unit, all of a sudden it started to play things on its own! I realized some background app was accessing it. Usually when you use ASIO interface, it puts the device in exclusive mode. Doesn't seem to be the case here. You may want to unselect it as the default Windows device or you get mixing of its sound together with your main app!

These interfaces have a ton of functionality so fasten your belt as we go through them in steps.

MOTU UltraLite-mk5 DAC Measurements
Many people here are interested in using these professional interfaces in hifi applications so let's see how its DAC performs:

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That is really good performance for an interface!

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Typical of other pro interfaces there is a lot more output than 4 volt nominate that I measure at so let's look at the full spectrum:

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If you have an amplifier with low gain, this is one way to can get better combined SNR.

Dynamic range is well short of desktop products but for an interface, it is OK:
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Disappointing to the see the "ESS DAC chip IMD Hump" that we discovered some three years ago still manifesting itself in new products:
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What a lousy company ESS is by not teaching all of its licensees how to solve this problem.

Multitone test shows excellent performance:

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I was super pleasantly surprised to see the most accurate reconstruction filter I have seen in a DAC:
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Notice the full flat response in audible band and then truncation before the "Nyquist" frequency of 22.05 kHz. Wonder if this is a custom filter. Further, there is no scalloping of the noise floor. Very well done here.

Jitter performance is very good although noise floor is a bit high:
View attachment 139542

Linearity is a bit disappointing seeing how error starts to accumulate before we get to the end of our sweep at -120 dB:

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Even $99 DACs these days nail this test.

By this time in my testing of DACs, I am happy as only one test is left which usually doesn't show anything untoward, namely the THD+N vs frequency. Such was not here:

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What on earth is going on here in red? Investigating, I realized the sample rate was at 192 kHz. Strangely, when I switched to 48 kHz, the problem vanishes! Keeping at 192 kHz, we clearly see the problem at 100 Hz:

View attachment 139545

This is all artifacts right in the audible band! I can't think of any instrumentation that would cause such a problem. MOTU needs to investigate this and figure what is going on here.

MOTU UltraLite-mk5 ADC Measurements
There are both mic capable inputs and line level. I started testing with the Mic input set to its lowest gain:

View attachment 139547

Performance is nearly as good as line input which is nice:

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This again is an excellent result:

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Dynamic range is good especially at full 12 volt input:
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Nothing of note in frequency response:
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Linearity is underperforming though due to noise:

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IMD distortion is good:
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MOTU UltraLite-mk5 Headphone Amplifier Measurements
Headphone interfaces are usually pretty bad on audio interfaces. Let's see how it performs here:

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There is really good news here as far as low distortion+noise. Not so good is the 2 volt output which limits power similar to portable headphone dongles at high impedances:
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And low impedance unfortunately generates more distortion:

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So better than a checklist item but best to use a proper headphone amplifier.

Conclusions
The MOTU UltraLite-mk5 seems to be a well engineered interface with a couple of glaring problems. Worst issue is the very high distortion at mid to lower frequencies at 192 kHz sampling. This shouldn't be there at all. The second is less severe and it is the IMD distortion rising at mid levels which is long behind us in desktop DACs as companies figured out how to deal with that.

Given the 192 kHz sampling problem, I can't recommend the MOTU UltraLite-mk5. If this is something that can be fixed with a firmware update, and I have access to verify the same, I will upgrade this rating to recommended.

Note as always that my assessment of interfaces is on their engineering and measurements. You need to judge their functionality.

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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

I'm pleasantly surprised to see this review here so soon! It seems to perform really well in most aspects but displays odd misbehaviour in areas which usually receive less focus. It's like the honour student conforming to stellar expectations on the outside but is on the verge of rebelling in the absence of others

 

[phoenixsong]

Haven't seen a prettier DAC filter indeed. Seems like with 48kHz use and a good external headphone amp this unit is very desirable (as of now, hopefully they fix up the 192kHz performance)

 

[tifune]

:

View attachment 139537

Obviously this isn't an AVR, but I do wonder if this level of output is sustainable across all channels simultaneously or if there's a similar limitation due to shared power supply? I'm always looking for a HTPC DAC that I can use to replace my Denon and these MOTU devices always seemed appealing. Unfortunately I did read a post somewhere suggesting the MOTU drivers don't natively support multi-channel out in the way that DTS/Atmos would require; hopefully I could work around that.

Also, limit appears to be ~8.5V - is that where it clipped/shut down or simply where testing stopped?

 

[Helicopter]

Thanks Amir. Looks like this is a good buy if you want an ADC with excellent performance for recording or measurements. Too bad the firmware is flawed and the headphone amp is nothing special. It would be interesting to see what they could have done at $100-200 higher price point.

In any case, I will keep my 2i2 for now.

 

[PeteL]

Wonder if the asio driver issue and the 192KHz issue are somehow linked, this is odd.

 

[m_u]

Can you please measure instrument input as well?
Would be good to know at least RMS noise level.

 

[zhora]

Wonder if the asio driver issue and the 192Hz issue are somehow linked, this is odd.

As I understood, there's no real ASIO issue. It's pretty normal with pro audio interfaces that there's no default driver but that you have to download one from the manufacturer.

 

[PeteL]

As I understood, there's no real ASIO issue. It's pretty normal with pro audio interfaces that there's no default driver but that you have to download one from the manufacturer.

Yes this is not what I'm talking about:
"There was something strange that I had not seen before. As I was testing the unit, all of a sudden it started to play things on its own! I realized some background app was accessing it. Usually when you use ASIO interface, it puts the device in exclusive mode. Doesn't seem to be the case here. You may want to unselect it as the default Windows device or you get mixing of its sound together with your main app!" This is not regular behaviour for Asio. You should not have 2 drivers active at the same time, the Windows Native one and the Motu Asio one

 

[Medul]

I won't be suprised that the issue with 192kHz is related to switching on the oscillator dedicated to multiple of 44.1kHz instead of the one dedicated to the multiple of 48kHz... If so, it should be quite easy to correct.

 

[zhora]

Yes this is not what I'm talking about:
"There was something strange that I had not seen before. As I was testing the unit, all of a sudden it started to play things on its own! I realized some background app was accessing it. Usually when you use ASIO interface, it puts the device in exclusive mode. Doesn't seem to be the case here. You may want to unselect it as the default Windows device or you get mixing of its sound together with your main app!" This is not regular behaviour for Asio. You should not have 2 drivers active at the same time, the Windows Native one and the Motu Asio one

Ahh ok, I understand what you mean now. I'm not surprised by it however--I think that my RME works the same (or at least similar) way.

If I have Ableton running with its ASIO driver, I can still hear sounds from Windows.

 

[617]

Honestly seems pretty damn good if you need 8 channels in and out.

Could you use this for surround sound mixing? I've always wondered what was needed for that. A single volume control controlling all outs?

 

[temps]

Honestly seems pretty damn good if you need 8 channels in and out.

Could you use this for surround sound mixing? I've always wondered what was needed for that. A single volume control controlling all outs?

that is a big thing, actually! Apollo holds that feature back for the X6 and above, so even though the X4 has the required number of outputs for 5.1, you can only control two of the channels with the volume control and have to pay an extra $500cad for surround monitor control. Or you get an external hardware controller and do it like that.

The ultralite you can set as many outputs as you want to be controlled by the front panel volume knob so you can do the same thing for much cheaper, with comparable performance.

There are a lot of complaints about MOTU drivers over on Gearspace... I had been excited for this interface at first until I saw numerous big threads with posts stretching back years with driver issues. Running one of these in tandem with an RME Digiface or something so you can use the RME drivers & TotalMix, with the MOTU basically operating standalone just as a converter, may be the way to go.

 

[phoenixsong]

Interesting to hear about the drivers, so far my M2 has worked flawlessly on Windows 10. Windows 11 is coming out soon, wonder how it will shake things up then

 

[wwenze]

What on earth is going on here in red? Investigating, I realized the sample rate was at 192 kHz. Strangely, when I switched to 48 kHz, the problem vanishes! Keeping at 192 kHz, we clearly see the problem at 100 Hz:

Was it set to 192kHz by chance, or were all DACs tested with 192kHz also? I worry about escapees.

 

[milezone]

The 192khz distortion issue is related driver incompatibility which in turn results in a mismatch of clock frequencies between the interface and whatever device you have it plugged into. If running on Mac software this would not be an issue as Motu interfaces are optimized for Macs. On PCs I have had this issue in the past and no amount of driver updates was able to resolve it. It seems like a clock instability thing within the interface however seeing as they work on a Mac though not on a PC, I believe it has to do with an inability of the computer to recognize/lock into/stabilize the clock of the interface. In addition it's possible that it's associated with how the data is transferred over USB -- a USB driver issue rather than the ASIO driver. Pretty absurd to me that Motu hasn't sorted this out and furthermore I was unable to find any concise explanation online at the time me having this problem. In addition the technicians at Motu "weren't familiar with such an issue." To come up with a thorough and competent product line yet still implement the same dated firmware that prevents these products from functioning properly...

 

[PeteL]

Ahh ok, I understand what you mean now. I'm not surprised by it however--I think that my RME works the same (or at least similar) way.

If I have Ableton running with its

I know that windows 10 has full audio class 2 implementation in should support 192 kHz but I was just thinking it could have looked like some driver conflicts, windows still like to default 48 kHz and if you have two drivers running at the same time some non pro applications that still support ASIO may get confused. Ableton is mature, but maybe in the measurment signal flow some oddities may creep in, just a tought, an hypothesis.