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Arturia Minifuse 2 Review (Audio Interface)

Rate this interface

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 2 1.6%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 72 59.0%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 44 36.1%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 4 3.3%

  • Total voters
    122

Pauper

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The Minifuse is bus powered so doesn’t need a separate plug socket and is a lot smaller than the id14.
The monitor control is not multifunctional as on the id14. The software mixer/gain control is a lot simpler to use.
Having said all that it is down to personal preference. I am over 70 and need things to be ultra simple.
 

pseudoid

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...low latency performance and driver support. RME, for instance, is popular in the pro world becuase of its low latency and hassle free drivers, not the qualities that we care about.
I care about latency and I am sure those who have multi-zone audio feeds, in a home environment, worry about it too.
Latency is one of those subtle specs that snuck into my concerns in the digital-era.
One does not discover such issues initially or often; sadly, it becomes a concern way after purchase.:mad:
 

PeteL

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The Minifuse is bus powered so doesn’t need a separate plug socket and is a lot smaller than the id14.
The monitor control is not multifunctional as on the id14. The software mixer/gain control is a lot simpler to use.
Having said all that it is down to personal preference. I am over 70 and need things to be ultra simple.
ID14 is bus powered too, mine is anyway, maybe the 48V is not accessible, not sure I remember what the limitation is when powered trough USB but I've never use the wall transformer (In fact I'd have trouble finding it). Not using the mixer neither unless I need to accomplish something very specific
 

DanTheMan

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I’m with Pauper on what makes for a nice interface. I’ve got an Apogee that works like the Audient and it sounds fantastic, but using it feels awkward a decade later. Using one with knobs just makes life much easier and intuitive for me.
 

Atanasi

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I heard when you said "add transients", what we're asking is, how that would actually work? (on top of the "with their attack and vanishing as happens under regular conditions). What would be regular conditional representation of this when using a multitone FFT method?
In theory an FFT can be generated for any sample of an appropriate length. The problem with more complicated samples is that it is not so obvious visually which graphs indicate good results, so getting a a comparable measurement requires further analysis.
 

Pauper

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ID14 is bus powered too, mine is anyway, maybe the 48V is not accessible, not sure I remember what the limitation is when powered trough USB but I've never use the wall transformer (In fact I'd have trouble finding it). Not using the mixer neither unless I need to accomplish something very specific
If you are using a condenser mic as I often do then the id14 needs 48 v power. But, as I said it’s different strokes etc.
 

andivax

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Atrudia, Artrudia, Arturia ))
Thank you for the review, Amir!
 

fastfreddy666

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I have a ID14 and a Motu M2. The Motu M2 has a level LCD which not only looks cool but comes in handy to check your recording levels without looking at your DAW screen all the time.

The thing is powered by USB-C and this gives enough power to use a Phantom power condenser microphone without the hassle of an external power adapter you need for the ID14 phantom power. I have a tendency to lose power adapters. (i have so many) and it's not ideal if you want to use the thing on the go.

Latency is also pretty good but this also depends on the power of your computer (CPU) and buffer size. With a more powerful computer (CPU mostly_ you can set the buffer size lower. At 192000 khz sample rate and buffer size of 64 samples you get a round trip latency of 3,5 ms with the Motu M2. With lower sample rates the latency becomes higher. Research has discovered that latency begins to become a problem at about 15 ms especially with (singing) voice monitoring.

Research sponsored by the National Science Foundation, through the Stanford University Department of Music, has shown that performers in an ensemble have no problem synchronizing with each other while experiencing latencies as high as 40 ms and even greater. In fact, latencies in the 10 ms to 20 ms range actually have a stabilizing affect on tempo and are thought to be preferred over zero latency. weird huh?
But this is actually a good thing of you want to play live over the internet with a group of performers without actually being together in the studio. Modern technology. It's magic.

I never have problems with latency. I can play a keyboard a little bit but i do this very slowy and then speed it up afterwards in my DAW
I use mostly software synthesizers. But I also have a drum computer (Aturia Minibrute) and a Maschine (Native instruments) a midi controller.
The hands on approach of a drum computer is much more fun to use than programming beats with your mouse.

What is a problem with many audio interfaces is that the output impedance of the headphone output can be too high. headphone outputs with high impedance can seriously mess with your frequency response and distortion (thd+n) of headphones with low impedance. BA headpones IEM like the ones from Eytmotic are very sensitive to this.

You can see this on the Youtube video by Julian Krause which i highly recommend:

I also have a graph that is by Julian Krause.
HEADPHONE_OUTPUT1000.png

Copyright Julian Krause. I hope he won't sue me. But His Youtube videos are highly recommended. Check it out.

To give an example. The Audient ID14 has headphone output impedance of 22 Ohm. As you use a headphone with >250 ohm the problem goes away. Most studio headphones have a relatively high impedance >250 ohm. But this is not always the case.

I use several studio headphones. An example is the Audio Technica M50X. It has an impedance of 38 ohm.

Nwavguy has an excellent primer on this: http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/02/headphone-amp-impedance.html

The thing to remember is that most headphones work best when the output impedance is less than 1/8th the headphone impedance.
I prefer zero output impedance. But under two ohms should be okay. The Motu M2 has an headphone output impedance of 0.06 ohm. Excellent.
 
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phoenixsong

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Another device I'm been looking forward to getting reviewed! Love the appearance of the white version, but performance is just ok beside its competitors. I'm seeing some discussion about the Audient iD series; if I'm not wrong the Mkii versions are usb powered unlike the original version. Hope this clears things up
 

AnalogSteph

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Conclusions
The minifuse 2 goes after the market that Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 captures at same price point. Lot of the measurements look similar to that so I suspect the same DAC/ADC is used here.
Yes, it's another CS4272 job.

Not sure what's up with the low-level eccentricities of the output though. Are these even real or does the AP just not like the ultrasonic noise level once input sensitivity is stepped up? What does the spectrum have to say?
 

Pauper

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Another device I'm been looking forward to getting reviewed! Love the appearance of the white version, but performance is just ok beside its competitors. I'm seeing some discussion about the Audient iD series; if I'm not wrong the Mkii versions are usb powered unlike the original version. Hope this clears things up
Yes, I am referring to the Mk 1 version in my posts. I’m aware that the Mk 2 is different
 

Nango

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You think what would come closer?

I heard when you said "add transients", what we're asking is, how that would actually work? (on top of the "with their attack and vanishing as happens under regular conditions). What would be regular conditional representation of this when using a multitone FFT method?
No idea. I thought It should be closest to "like playing a flute" live.
 

PeteL

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What is a problem is with many audio interfaces is that the output impedance of the headphone output can be too high. headphone outputs with high impedance and can seriously mess with your frequency response and distortion (thd+n) of headphones with low impedance. BA headpones IEM like the ones from Eytmotic are very sensitive to this.

You can see this on the Youtube video by Julian Krause which i highly recommend:

I also have a graph that is by Julian Krause.
View attachment 204867
Copyright Julain Krause. I hope he won't sue. me. But His Youtube videos are highly recommended. Check it out.

To give an example. The Audient ID14 has headphone output impedance of 22 Db. As you use a headphone with >250 ohm the problem goes away. Most studio headphones have a relatively high impedance >250 ohm. But this is not always the case.

I use several studio headphones. An example is the Audio Technica M50X. It has an impedance of 38 ohm.

Nwavguy that an excellent primer on this: http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/02/headphone-amp-impedance.html

The thing to remember is that most headphones work best when the output impedance is less than 1/8th the headphone impedance.
I prefer zero output impedance. But under two ohms should be okay. The Motu M2 has an headphone output impedance of 0,3 ohm. Excellent.
Yes somehow you are right, now it's not as black and white, I also wish those audio interface had smaller output impedance for headphones, and it's actually also true for a lot of pro equipment like mixing consoles and such. But the studio headphones >250 ohms you refer to are also often not very efficient, may be the right impedance match but if the USB powered interface don't have enough power it's not ideal neither. the 1/8th rule is not Gospel, if the impedance curve of the headphone is very flat, even low, the impact will be minimal on considerably smaller ratio than that, it's just really a rule of thumb. Bottom line, it's very likely that your low impedance but close to resistive easy to drive M50X will perform better on low power audio interface than something like HD650.
 
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dr0ss

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Controls have rubberized paint on them
Manufacturers still use this horrible stuff? Why not just glue velvet to the knob, at least it would last longer. (I have a box of Roland/Sonar portable interfaces where not only the knob but the whole damn thing is covered with this crap. On the ones I still use I've removed the coating, but the rest are congealing together in storage.)
 

pseudoid

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Manufacturers still use this horrible stuff?
Re: Rubberized Paint.
Is there a more horrible word than "horrible" to describe this nasty stuff that gets [...ummmm....] emulsified[?], with age and/or environmental exposure?
 

fastfreddy666

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Yes somehow you are right, now it's not as black and white, I also wish those audio interface had smaller output impedance for headphones, and it's actually also true for a lot of pro equipment like mixing consoles and such. But the studio headphones >250 ohms you refer to are also often not very efficient, may be the right impedance match but if the USB powered interface don't have enough power it's not ideal neither. the 1/8th rule is not Gospel, if the impedance curve of the headphone is very flat, even low, the impact will be minimal on considerably smaller ratio than that, it's just really a rule of thumb. Bottom line, it's very likely that your low impedance but close to resistive easy to drive M50X will perform better on low power audio interface than something like HD650.
All USB-C cables must be able to carry a minimum of 3 A current (at 20 V, 60 W) but can also carry high-power 5 A current (at 20 V, 100 W)

With a modern PC this shouldn't be a problem. My PC has several native USB-C ports. USB2 ports should be able to provide 1.5 A.
this is plenty for most headphones. With the exception of electrostatics of course. But these things are expensive. A STAX SR-X9000 set you back
$6,200.00. Then you have to buy an electrostatic amplifier which costs more than the headphone itself. Audiophiles with lots of disposable income.
are crazy. LOL. :)

Commercial line out specification is to be able to drive 1 milliwatt to a 600 ohm load. For a sine wave, this means a voltage of 0.77 volts RMS (2.2 volts peak-to-peak) and a current of 1.3 milliamperes RMS (3.6 milliamperes peak-to-peak).
 

PeteL

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All USB-C cables must be able to carry a minimum of 3 A current (at 20 V, 60 W) but can also carry high-power 5 A current (at 20 V, 100 W)

With a modern PC this shouldn't be a problem. My PC has several native USB-C ports. USB2 ports should be able to provide 1.5 A.
this is plenty for most headphones. With the exception of electrostatics of course. But these things are expensive. A STAX SR-X9000 set you back
$6,200.00. Then you have to buy an electrostatic amplifier which costs more than the headphone itself. Audiophiles with lots of disposable income.
are crazy. LOL. :)

Commercial line out specification is to be able to drive 1 milliwatt to a 600 ohm load. For a sine wave, this means a voltage of 0.77 volts RMS (2.2 volts peak-to-peak) and a current of 1.3 milliamperes RMS (3.6 milliamperes peak-to-peak).
This headphone amp measure 26 mW in 300 ohms. Not a lot of power. I don’t know of this one but even today not many audio interfaces use USB 3. In this particular case, the type A connector seams to suggest it could be USB 3, but regardless if the BUS power is the limiting factor or not, The vast majority, starting with those tested here of low cost USB audio interface have weak HP amps. Most will also want backward compatibility, and also the USB audio standard, the streaming part is specced for USB 2 connections.
 
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AnalogSteph

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Manufacturers still use this horrible stuff? Why not just glue velvet to the knob, at least it would last longer. (I have a box of Roland/Sonar portable interfaces where not only the knob but the whole damn thing is covered with this crap. On the ones I still use I've removed the coating, but the rest are congealing together in storage.)
To be fair, the longevity of these rubberized coatings seems to be very much YMMV terrain, perhaps depending on whether they got the formulation of the batch right and environmental conditions (temperature, exposure to solvents...). My Dell Latitude E6520 palmrest (device bought used in ~2015) still isn't sticky, but I have seen several others that were, and the E6330's also is a bit.
 

pseudoid

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I have seen several others that were
I had two Yamaha and one SonyES hardware with icky-sticky volume knobs.
Not so hard to find replacements knobs, though.
 
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