Help needed to decide between Audient ID4 MKII vs Topping E2x2 OTG (or other audio interfaces) to just play guitar in Neural DSP Plugins

[Mugetsu]

Hello, everyone, hope you’re having a great day. I’ve encountered this awesome forum a few days ago while searching for information about budget audio interfaces (and also watching Julian Krause videos) since I’m planning to buy one in Black Friday.

First of all, I’m a total noob in all the technical details when it comes to this topic, so please forgive me if I make a mistake.

Currently I’m torn between the Audient ID4 MKII and Topping E2X2 OTG. Right now, I can get the Audient for $207 USD and the Topping for around $225 USD (I also read good things about Motu M2 but the price in which I can get it is higher). Don’t know if the price will be lower on Black Friday (hopefully) but regardless of that, I put the price here for comparison.

The interface will be used to play guitar in Neural DSP plugins with headphones connected to the audio interface. I mention the headphones because that will be the way that I’ll use the interface pretty much all the time.

I only want to practice and maybe record my guitar to see my progress but that’s it, not going to do mixing, nor podcasting, record vocals or anything related.

My current setup is the next one:

• Lenovo Legion 7 with Intel I9-12900HX (I read that Buffer Size is related to CPU power so I put this info just to be sure).
• Sony WH-1000XM4 (50 Ω impedance when turned on)

Audient ID4 MKII headphone output impedance: 22.3 Ω

Topping E2X2 OTG headphone output impedance: 1.03 Ω

Since the Sony Headphones have a battery powered internal amplifier don’t know if the output impedance and output power of the interfaces will matter (please forgive my ignorance).

Subjectively, I like the design of the Audient ID4 MKII a lot more and it seems easier to use but objectively, in the graphs I’ve seen in their respective threads the Topping seems to be better.

The things I care about more are:

• Interface build quality of the chassis and components.
• Quality of the DI Input JFET (since that will be pretty much the only use I’ll give to the interface).
• User interface Software and drivers compatibility (I use Windows 11).
• Easiness of use to do the initial gain staging for setting up the interface in Neural DSP.
• Buffer Size to have the lowest latency between what I play in the guitar and heard in the headphones.
• Quality of the sound I receive in the headphones.

I know the question is kind of hard but which one do you guys think will be best for what I want?

Has anyone tested them in an application similar to what I plan to use them?

Which one gave you the best results?

Apart from those two interfaces, is there a better one suited for what I want?

Thanks for your attention.

Cheers.

 

[DVDdoug]

Most of these little interfaces are similar in performance. The instrument input is less critical than the microphone input because it has a lot lower gain. But I've heard of one interface where the gain knob doesn't go down to zero and the guitar's volume had to be turned down to prevent clipping. (I don't remember which one.) And as I'm sure you know, the high-impedance, unbalanced, guitar pickup is "very good" at picking-up noise.

One feature I'd look for is direct-hardware zero-latency monitoring. But you can't bypass the computer if you are using real time effects in your monitoring chain. You can potentially save yourself lots of potential headaches by NOT monitoring yourself through the computer...

There are a few interfaces that can run plug-ins in hardware (Universal Audio makes some). So that would avoid latency (in the monitoring). But I think they run their own proprietary plug-ins... I don't think they run VSTs.

Otherwise, ASIO drivers were developed for low latency so it's probably best to get an interface with ASIO drivers, and your DAW/host also needs to support ASIO.

latency mostly comes from buffers but some effects also add latency. You NEED buffers (which are also delays) because the operating system is always interrupting and multitasking even if you're only running one application. If something "hogs" the system for a few milliseconds too long, you get buffer overflow (recording) or buffer underflow (playback/monitoring) and glitches in your audio... The problems are usually "something else". A faster computer can finish-those background operations faster, allowing smaller buffers, and you can try to minimize the stuff that's running in the background.

Assuming you are on Windows, there is a free online book about optimizing your computer for audio called Glitch Free.

 

[Mugetsu]

Most of these little interfaces are similar in performance. The instrument input is less critical than the microphone input because it has a lot lower gain. But I've heard of one interface where the gain knob doesn't go down to zero and the guitar's volume had to be turned down to prevent clipping. (I don't remember which one.) And as I'm sure you know, the high-impedance, unbalanced, guitar pickup is "very good" at picking-up noise.

One feature I'd look for is direct-hardware zero-latency monitoring. But you can't bypass the computer if you are using real time effects in your monitoring chain. You can potentially save yourself lots of potential headaches by NOT monitoring yourself through the computer...

There are a few interfaces that can run plug-ins in hardware (Universal Audio makes some). So that would avoid latency (in the monitoring). But I think they run their own proprietary plug-ins... I don't think they run VSTs.

Otherwise, ASIO drivers were developed for low latency so it's probably best to get an interface with ASIO drivers, and your DAW/host also needs to support ASIO.

latency mostly comes from buffers but some effects also add latency. You NEED buffers (which are also delays) because the operating system is always interrupting and multitasking even if you're only running one application. If something "hogs" the system for a few milliseconds too long, you get buffer overflow (recording) or buffer underflow (playback/monitoring) and glitches in your audio... The problems are usually "something else". A faster computer can finish-those background operations faster, allowing smaller buffers, and you can try to minimize the stuff that's running in the background.

Assuming you are on Windows, there is a free online book about optimizing your computer for audio called Glitch Free.

Thanks for taking the time to answer.

To be honest I also don't know wich interface has the knob gain problem.

I believe both Audient and Topping have direct monitoring through hardware. I'll attach to pictures to see if I'm correct or if I'm mistaking things, please correct me.

Neural DSP plugins can run as standalone software so fortunately I would not need a DAW when looking to just practice. If I ever use a DAW for recording that would be Reaper.

Thank you for the book recommendation.