Donner LiveJack Audio Interface Review

[amirm]

This is a review and quick measurements of the Donner Livejack portable audio interface (DAC & ADC). It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $80 as of this writing.

It is kind of a unique device with included battery and portability. Company provides an ASIO driver but I could not get it to work. It seems like a copy of the Theyscon driver which I have had similar issues with. The control panel installs and seemingly does things. But the ASIO driver asserts that the hardware is not there. Fortunately, it acts as a Windows class driver so I was able to use ASIO emulation to testing.

If you are not familiar with Donner, they are a player in the value oriented music instrumentation.

Donner Live Jack Interface Measurements
I started with DAC measurements, using Line Out:

It was disappointing to see less than 1 volt output instead of 2 volts. As is, both noise and distortion are quite high, ranking the Live Jack at the bottom of our interfaces:

Moving on to capture side, using the XLR input generates more disappointing results:

I could not go above 0.1 volt or so without the unit severely clipping. So I switched to Line In:

Performance remains the same while also not being able to tolerate anything above 0.9 volt.

For grins, I ran the IMD vs level sweep:

Conclusions
Company seems to have come up with nice feature set for the Live Jack interface. The price is very good as well. Alas, performance across both input and output is decidedly poor. Would have been nice to have a petter performing unit at $99 than what is presented here.

I can't recommend the Donner LiveJack audio interface.
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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/

 

[amirm]

Reserved for @RickS to kindly post the specs.

Input	XLR / 1/4' TRS combo input
Output	1/8'' TRS output x 2
Sampling Rate	192kHz / 24Bit
USB	USB 2.0 Type-C connector

Switch	48V phantom power switch. Direct/Playback switch. Power ON/OFF switch
Weight	103g
Size	4.33 in x 1.53 in x 1.18 in

These are from Amazon as did not find on the vendor website.

 

[EERecordist]

For the functionality, a portable laptop interface, if it works with the customer's computer, it is attractive. Something like the Rode AI-Micro is probably better.

With the reported software problems, it probably has a lot of returns. You can't beat the price, and there is a market for it. I don't think I would name my company that. Hopefully they are not engaging in "value oriented" meals!

 

[JRicoC]

For guitarists, functional [emphasis added] portable interfaces are few and far between. For the price, the feature set is about all a guitarist would need to record, or create preset profiles in modeling software, or for a practice rig, with its line-level input, and headphone and line-level out ...

 

[kemmler3D]

I don't think I would name my company that. Hopefully they are not engaging in "value oriented" meals!

I had the same thought... even if the performance is good enough for you, the branding is very questionable.

 

[renaudrenaud]

The brand has some difficulties to decide their products line.

Donner Live jack

Or Donner kebab.

But they are focused on inexpensive but low quality products.

 

[GD Fan]

I'm not surprised. Last year I bought a Donner guitar delay pedal ($30) that was so bad I returned it immediately.

 

[Gitfiddle]

This feels like one of those products that is so close to being really interesting and usable. Quite a shame.

 

[kemmler3D]

The brand has some difficulties to decide their products line.

Donner Live jack

View attachment 449269

Or Donner kebab.

View attachment 449270
But they are focused on inexpensive but low quality products.

Doner kebab is usually made from beef, lamb, or chicken... Donner kebab would probably be made out of long pork*.




I'm assuming most people not from the US didn't have an extensive "Westward Ho!" unit in history class, so:

*In the US, the Donner Party is an (in)famous historical incident in which a group of pioneers traveling through the mountains were tragically stranded and resorted to cannibalism. You can visit the Donner Pass on your way to Lake Tahoe in California...

 

[Pariah Zero]

Now I'm curious: Is there a tiering system for:

1. Headless Panther
2. Headless Panther with the head nearby
3. Just the Panther's Head? (Did the zombie run off with the braiiiiins?)

One "nice" thing about this is it's able to run on a Phone with a USB-C interface: When a great Microphone has in the neighborhood of 78 dB of signal-to-noise, I seem to recall the worst signal-to-noise for the whole system would work out to ~74 dB of SNR - which is still fairly good for a Microphone.

*In the US, the Donner Party is an (in)famous historical incident in which a group of pioneers traveling through the mountains were tragically stranded and resorted to cannibalism. You can visit the Donner Pass on your way to Lake Tahoe in California...

 

[SuicideSquid]

Well that's disappointing (and an ill omen...)

 

[amirm]

1. Headless Panther
2. Headless Panther with the head nearby
3. Just the Panther's Head? (Did the zombie run off with the braiiiiins?)

Correct on 1 & 2. 3 is uses here for space saving.

 

[JSmith]

I can't recommend the Donner LiveJack audio interface.

Thanks for testing this, as there are many video "reviews" of this claiming it's the bee knees... when clearly it isn't, as evidenced by the high noise floor.

It is on kind loan from a member

Good on that member for doing so.


JSmith

 

[Sokel]

People probably don't get it. The interface is fantastic.

Noise at school band rigs is the equivalent of leds, it just shows that gear works

Seriously now, it's the very definition of getting what you pay for.So...

Thanks Amir!

 

[Geert]

Note that this interface is explicitly sold as a mic/guitar interface, with the XLR/combo input to be used with mic’s or guitars according to the documentation. The bad news is that an input sensitivity of 0,1V is also to low for a lot of guitars, even with passive pickups. The input sensitivity of the line input isn’t documented, as we see often with low budget stuff. I actually couldn't find any specifications for this device. That’s a huge red flag.

 

[welwynnick]

Thanks Amir.
OK its not great, but its not broken either.
Its the pragmatic interface.
If thats what you pay, thats what you get.

 

[wwenze]

 

[OnLyTNT]

I came here to read the review but disappointed with the product. Here by, I leave with drooling over "döner" pictures. Some unexpected series of events

 

[phoenixdogfan]

So we're not giving the Donner a pass or bringing it to our party.

In any case, thank you for the nice review, Amir.

 

[kemmler3D]

So we're not giving the Donner a pass or bringing it to our party.

Aha, this is the one-liner we've been waiting for in this thread.