Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Audio Interface Gen 3 Review

[restorer-john]

The very poor headphone amplifier makes it useless. The cheap plastic construction does not help.

The casework is extruded aluminium and the headphone amplifier is fine for normal sensitivity headphones. All in all, it is a well made and good performing product. I have both the 2i2v2 and v3 and there is no wonder they are (the solo and the 2i2) the world's best selling interfaces by miles.

 

[Tenfilip]

The casework is extruded aluminium and the headphone amplifier is fine for normal sensitivity headphones. All in all, it is a well made and good performing product. I have both the 2i2v2 and v3 and there is no wonder they are (the solo and the 2i2) the world's best selling interfaces by miles.

I agree its a good product, but the headphone out is just worse than all the other elements of the device, lacks dynamics.

 

[SIY]

I agree its a good product, but the headphone out is just worse than all the other elements of the device, lacks dynamics.

I would think that depends on the headphones. For the ones I use (1More triple driver over ear), the headphone amp has plenty of driving ability. No experience with inefficient headphones. What were you using that it couldn't drive?

 

[AnalogSteph]

I am trying to use the 2i2 as a dac to go out to a JDS Atom, and attempting to understand why one would go the route this commenter suggested instead of just running out of the monitor outs with the knob on the front dimed (presumably that would be line level.)

1. Monitor out may already be taken up by speakers.
2. Adapters would have to be carefully chosen in order to avoid shorting the "cold" output.

The gen 3 Scarlett headphone output is basically at cMoy level. There is sufficient output for typical 250-300 ohm dynamic headphones, and its low output impedance results in decent performance driving IEMs, but a lone NJM8065 opamp (a modern-day relaunch of the decades-old NJM4565) is woefully underpowered and distortion-prone when it comes to driving less sensitive 32 ohm dynamic headphones, let alone planar magnetics.

The gen 2 still had an average-performing headphone output (presumably using a much beefier NJM4556A), but the gen 3 is clearly substandard. When at the same time standards for headphone driving were steadily increasing elsewhere, that was a bit of a perplexing move.

 

[ehabheikal]

Are there any problems to use this like a regular audiophile dac?

 

[Ricardus]

Are there any problems to use this like a regular audiophile dac?

Nope.

I do.

 

[unpluggged]

Are there any problems to use this like a regular audiophile dac?

You need to define "audiophile" first or specify your functional requirements. As a regular DAC/sound card, yes, this is what it does, essentially.

 

[ehabheikal]

If anyone here know does this work in linux

 

[Ricardus]

If anyone here know does this work in linux

Yes. I have this a the newer Clarett+ 8 Pre and they work great. Mind you, I only use them for conversion and I/O, so some of the stuff their proprietary Win/Mac software does we might not have access to. But someone supposedly added that functionality to the Kernel, so there might be an applet to access every feature.

 

[markanini]

I have Scarlett 2i4 gen 2. Getting warbling artifacts after enabling EqualizerAPO(LFX/GFX). Anyone found a solution to this issue?

 

[teashea]

The 4th gen interfaces are out now and they are very good. Watch Julian Krause's YT channel for measurements - (He is The expert on audio interfaces).

 

[markanini]

The 4th gen interfaces are out now and they are very good. Watch Julian Krause's YT channel for measurements - (He is The expert on audio interfaces).

ASIO apps works fine, browsing between youtube videos triggers warbling after some time requiring a restart. I may want look at other brands if this is what happens inevitably.

 

[teashea]

ASIO apps works fine, browsing between youtube videos triggers warbling after some time requiring a restart. I may want look at other brands if this is what happens inevitably.

I suggest Audient and SSL. Better build quality and form.

 

[AnalogSteph]

ASIO apps works fine, browsing between youtube videos triggers warbling after some time requiring a restart. I may want look at other brands if this is what happens inevitably.

Driver 4.116.9 release notes:

Notes:

• Added support for 4th Gen Scarlett Solo, 2i2, 4i4
• Notifier displays name of control software rather than "Mixing/Routing"
• Improved WDM playback/recording robustness
• No longer require a restart when installing on a system that doesn’t already have a Focusrite driver installed
• General stability improvements

Seems to have been necessary then.

 

[WDeranged]

I've used Focusrites budget gear for almost 15 years. The hardware has never given me a reason to complain. The drivers (Windows) are less good. Nothing serious, just lots of little things. In rare moments changing the sample rate can cause a bluescreen. It's an old, well known issue but it persists.

I keep meaning to switch brands simply for better drivers but the hardware is solid and the software issues rare enough that I never get around to it.

 

[Keith_W]

I too, am happy to recommend the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. My Gen 1 Scarlett is now 10 years old, and it still works, no problem. I can't say the same about my Presonus Audiobox USB, now that is a pile of garbage. So many software / driver issues, and it thankfully died a few years ago and gave me an excuse to throw it out.

 

[GD83]

Hello, I'm looking for a good product like this but with a good headphone output because that's what interests me to play bass at home, obviously I'll probably have to pay a little more, below 150/ 200 euros suits me.

Or maybe it's enough for Sennheiser HD 560S ??

I am not a specialist.

THANKS.

 

[restorer-john]

Hello, I'm looking for a good product like this but with a good headphone output because that's what interests me to play bass at home, obviously I'll probably have to pay a little more, below 150/ 200 euros suits me, thank you.

The headphone output is fine. Seriously, unless you want to deafen yourself all the time. I suggest going to a local music instrument store and trying one out with your headphones.

 

[staticV3]

Hello, I'm looking for a good product like this but with a good headphone output because that's what interests me to play bass at home, obviously I'll probably have to pay a little more, below 150/ 200 euros suits me, thank you.

Julian Krause has measured the headphone output of various audio interfaces and summarized their performance in one spreadsheet:


The 2i2 3rd gen has pretty bad distortion and crosstalk with a 32Ω load.

The audio interface with the best headphone output is currently the Topping E2X2. It costs 185€: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005900994376.html

 

[GD83]

Thank you, I already have topping equipment (D10S) and formerly L30 (unfortunately defective version), my choice would rather go towards the E2X2, to think about.