Help me choose an audio interface

[madmalkav]

Hi everyone, I can use some help deciding what to buy.

My current setup was the following:

Behringer Q802USB mixer
Chinese condenser mic that needs 48V Phantom
Sennheiser HD800
Beyerdynamic DT700 600 ohm
Marantz NR-1401 amplifier
Two small passive speakers

The Marantz was connected to my personal PC, the Behringer to both my PC and company laptop with a USB 2.0 switch that as far as I know it is fully passive (no power taken from the computers or a power brick). Yeah, quite a strange setup, made mostly from bargains I bought during many years. I used the Marantz as an amp for both the speakers and the headphones, except for some audio/video calls with the company laptop, in that case I just plugged the DT770 to the Behringer out of convenience.

Both the Behringer and the Marantz died in a power surge recently. Electric company took them to try to repair them, but probably I will need to buy new equipment. Perhaps it was the time to update the setup anyway.

I don't do any serious stuff with the equipment: I use it for audio/video meetings, recording myself from time to time with no need of professional quality (podcast/twitch stuff for like 2 viewers) and listening to music.

What I think I will need to replace everything and make a decent upgrade of my setup is:

- An USB interface/mixer.
- A balanced headphone amp (probably not really needed, but I have a balanced cabled for the HD800 anyways and I'll love to try it)
- Some active speakers.

SMSL SP200 seems a good option for the headphone amplifier at a reasonable price, and for active speakers, well, I don't use the speakers for music listening, more like for audio listening while studying languages and stuff like that, so anything will do. My doubt is about what audio interface to buy. I definitively need it to:

- Have two balanced outputs, one for active monitors, one for a headphone amp.
- Have at least one input with 48V phantom power. A second input and support for Hi-Z could be nice but not really needed.
- Good Linux support. I know, not the best OS for this stuff, but I've been a Unix user for 25 years, and I'm getting too old to relearn everything in a new OS.

Audient ID14 mkII looked good and the headphone output seemed OK to use it for some weeks while I buy the rest of the stuff, but seems you need the Audient software to be able to use the device properly (in example no way to use both outputs without the software), so now I'm scratching my head at what other options to consider.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Cadence]

From what I've seen, Motu M4 seems to be the best choice in an affordable price range. Focusrite Clarett+ 2 Pre could be fine too, but the price range is different.

I am personally holding out because I believe Focusrite may release a new Scarlett Gen. 4 series during the upcoming summer, given the release dates of the previous generations (06/2016 for Gen. 2 and 07/2019 for Gen. 3); if the series has significant upgrades, a 4i4 could be a good and affordable alternative as well.

 

[madmalkav]

Good to know. The electrical company finally managed to fix everything (they just dropped everything some hours ago and have been testing everything is indeed working ok). I didn't really count on that, so I can wait for some time for some sale on the SMSL SP200 or the Monoprice THX headphone amp and wait to see if a Scarlett Gen 4 appears or go for a Motu M4.

 

[loudnoise]

There are a lot of great audio interfaces. Audient is a great brand.
For more suggestions, you can see this list.

11 Best Studio Headphones - Apartment Recording

Every home recording studio needs a pair of good studio headphones. You need them for listening, recording, mixing, and mastering.

apartmentrecording.com

 

[madmalkav]

Unfortunately Audient ID14 mk2 needs their software for a lot of things, so not an option for Linux users.

 

[freemansteve]

If budget is a concern, and if you don't need full mixer capabilities*, you can buy something like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-...p/B00SAV0VP0/ref=psdc_407819031_t3_B00EK1OTZC

There is no reason to limit mixer choice to one with USB output though. Plenty of non-USB mixers (with multi XLR and jack inputs) that have *pan, EQ, loop returns etc. can be bought from a vast range, and then you could just add an ADC/DAC which will drive phones, amps etc. such as https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-UCA202-U-Control-low-latency-Interface/dp/B000KW2YEI/ref=sr_1_2?crid=GRRYHQHDCPNC&keywords=behringer+dac&qid=1648895532&sprefix=behringer+dac,aps,115&sr=8-2

I use an old Samson Mixpad 9 for my mics and guitar rig, and record it all to a laptop using a cheap UCA202 and Audacity - there is no need for HiFi-grade gear for basic recording!

As for a new amp, your choices are massive, have a look in the review section.

It all depends on what you might want to do for music playback - actual CD, rips of CDs, downloaded files, streaming services, hookup to TV for better sound? Worth thinking about, depending budget.....

For me, separating my main music playback system from my PC is a must. I want to play music from my PC (and do my recordings) in my office room, but I also have to be able to provide family "HiFi" listening in the lounge for all the same material. I happen to run a NAS/RAID unit that has a built-in DLNA server (music, video and photos are served to wherever I want), but I also run an additional DLNA media server on my PC, so any material on the PC can be played anywhere over my LAN, even if the main NAS is off. Once you get the idea of a media server, especially a free one, you have lots of nice options, blah, blah -

The point is that you could buy any low-cost amp and hook it physically to your PC and speakers, or you could buy an amp and a low-cost (Pi, etc) network streamer with a DAC to feed the amp, and not have any fixed physical connection to the PC, if that appealed. You'd then have the option of some nicer additional kit - amp and speakers for your lounge, and you could consider an 'all-in-one' if you didn't want complexity.

 

[madmalkav]

I'm back to this issue, as I will have to move the Marantz amp I use on my computer to another room.

Given the Monolith balanced headphone amp is on sale now, I was thinking on buying:

- Monolith headphone amp
- A pair of active monitors
- USB mixer/interface with two balanced outputs

But for that, I would need it to be able to output balanced to both the Monolith and the active monitors, and disable microphone monitoring on both.

MOTU M4 seems like the better candidate for this, as I can use output 1/2 to the speakers (with volume control on the MOTU) and output 3/4 to the Monolith amp. But I'm afraid I can be missing something, in example:

- Monitoring can only be disabled for one set of outputs.
- as output 3/4 volume is not regulable on the MOTU it will be too high for the amp

This is not the only scenario I have considered, as I would love it to allow some hardware mix minus, so I can connect my company laptop to a TRRS port (ideally) or other ports and use it for the audio meetings (currently I use a USB switch to connect my USB mixer to either one computer or the other). There are several USB mixers that support this, but only Yamaha AG06 MK2 is near to filling the bill (being a reputable brand and having a 192Khz DAC I hope it will good enough for this), the problem being but you can't disable monitoring for one of the outputs, according to the manual. But I want that feature so bad I'm considering discarding the Monolith amp and either wait for a balanced headphone amp with good balanced preamp out or use a passive switch or some kind of monitor control for that output. But again I'm afraid I'm failing to consider something important in this scenario.

So, any thoughts and recommendations? Thanks for reading.