Motu M4 Audio Interface Review

[agent_x007]

Ad. 1. I want to use PCI/PCIe audio card with RCA (which is higher quality), BUT I want to prepare a backup in form of ready to go "build-in" motherboard audio solution (just in case I need it). Hence why I wanted to know what to use in both cases.
Regardless, I bet this is the cable I need (for RCA outputs) :

Ad. 3. I will think about it.
In theory, I could connect central speaker signal into Input 2, and future Mic to Input 1, to get some form of mix/monitoring at the same time with M4 (while still having left/right connected to Line-In on the back of it)
Just requires up mixing to 5.1/7.1 from standard stereo on sound card driver side.

Awesome, thank you very much for your help.
I may post some additional stuff after I play around with M4 some more.

 

[Grooved]

Ad. 1. I want to use PCI/PCIe audio card with RCA (which is higher quality), BUT I want to prepare a backup in form of ready to go "build-in" motherboard audio solution (just in case I need it). Hence why I wanted to know what to use in both cases.
Regardless, I bet this is the cable I need (for RCA outputs) :
View attachment 200959

Ad. 3. I will think about it.
In theory, I could connect central speaker signal into Input 2, and future Mic to Input 1, to get some form of mix/monitoring at the same time with M4 (while still having left/right connected to Line-In on the back of it)
Just requires up mixing to 5.1/7.1 from standard stereo on sound card driver side.

Awesome, thank you very much for your help.
I may post some additional stuff after I play around with M4 some more.

Exactly this cable if you use the PC2 RCA outputs

 

[agent_x007]

My Motu M4 is v3 (BOX text "assembled in China").
Bottom sticker :

PCB revision :

DAC (with A LOT of OP1678) :

ADC :

Atmel's USB bridge :

Stock firmware :

Updated to 2.02 to avoid any issues.

 

[Gzom]

Hi all. I hope for your help with choosing a sound interface from two options.
1. Audient ID14 MKII
2.Motu M4
The main direction of use is listening to music and working with virtual instruments inside the computer.
I don't plan on signing up with them. I looked at a bunch of reviews I read the entire forum and I can’t decide how.
On the Motu side, the stuffing is excellent, but it is often scolded for its mediocre headphone output. Everyone likes Audient, but I learned from a review on YouTube that low frequencies are poorly transmitted than on a motu.
What to take friends? justify your choice.

 

[OHtaru]

Hi all. I hope for your help with choosing a sound interface from two options.
1. Audient ID14 MKII
2.Motu M4
The main direction of use is listening to music and working with virtual instruments inside the computer.
I don't plan on signing up with them. I looked at a bunch of reviews I read the entire forum and I can’t decide how.
On the Motu side, the stuffing is excellent, but it is often scolded for its mediocre headphone output. Everyone likes Audient, but I learned from a review on YouTube that low frequencies are poorly transmitted than on a motu.
What to take friends? justify your choice.

If you play virtual instruments, you may experience more latency with MOTU. Yes, more.
RTL latency consists of both input and output, Motu's input latency is quite low but output latency is not as good as well.
I have both Audient iD4 and Motu M2, for 44.1kHz I should set Motu to 32 samples buffer size to get similar output latency to Audient that with 64 samples setting.
Motu's latency outstands only with lower buffer sizes, with buffer size increasing, it's output latency increases very quickly.
Audient tends to add latency on input side which influence less on output latency. It's more pleasant with CPU-demanding virtual instruments.

Another thing annoys me is Motu's volume control. It suddenly drops while turning down the volume knob pass 9 o'clock. I just found it's really difficult to get low-volume monitoring levels. I submitted a feedback on this issue but Motu didn't promise to fix it.

As for the headphone output, what's your headphone's impedance? Motu's output impedance is nearly 0 ohm vs Audient's 22 ohms. Motu is suitable for lower impedance headphones. I feel Motu sounds a little warmer than Audient but I can't say if it's just illusion.

 

[137tmxth]

From personal experience I'd say the HP amp on M4 works fine with some 250 ohms nominal headphones (Beyerdynamic DT-770 Pro and DT-1770 Pro). Can't notice anything obvious wrong with the sound quality (well anything you couldn't blame on the 'phones themselves...) and volume is loud enough with the knob set between about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way. I have not been doing any extensive comparisons between it and a proper separate headphone amp though.

IIRC people have reported success with 300 ohms nominal headphones too. (Sennheiser HD 600/650/6XX)

Unfortunately my only 600 ohms nominal cans would need some repairs done. They probably wouldn't work very well with the M4's output anyway.

How well it works (or doesn't) depends on sensitivity of the 'phones also.

 

[rollermine]

I found some Nichicon FW capacitors from my M4 (v3).
It seems that there is a difference in minor parts by individual unit.

 

[Grooved]

Hi all. I hope for your help with choosing a sound interface from two options.
1. Audient ID14 MKII
2.Motu M4
The main direction of use is listening to music and working with virtual instruments inside the computer.
I don't plan on signing up with them. I looked at a bunch of reviews I read the entire forum and I can’t decide how.
On the Motu side, the stuffing is excellent, but it is often scolded for its mediocre headphone output. Everyone likes Audient, but I learned from a review on YouTube that low frequencies are poorly transmitted than on a motu.
What to take friends? justify your choice.

Hi, do you need headphones amp only or also outputs for speakers ? and both separated ?
If headphones only and no need for multiple ouputs and no input, you should also look at headphones amp/DAC like the DX3 Pro+, but I'm not sure about the ASIO latency performance.
I can check on my Tone2 Pro if it's better or worst than on an audio interface

 

[phoenixsong]

If you play virtual instruments, you may experience more latency with MOTU. Yes, more.
RTL latency consists of both input and output, Motu's input latency is quite low but output latency is not as good as well.
I have both Audient iD4 and Motu M2, for 44.1kHz I should set Motu to 32 samples buffer size to get similar output latency to Audient that with 64 samples setting.
Motu's latency outstands only with lower buffer sizes, with buffer size increasing, it's output latency increases very quickly.
Audient tends to add latency on input side which influence less on output latency. It's more pleasant with CPU-demanding virtual instruments.

Another thing annoys me is Motu's volume control. It suddenly drops while turning down the volume knob pass 9 o'clock. I just found it's really difficult to get low-volume monitoring levels. I submitted a feedback on this issue but Motu didn't promise to fix it.

As for the headphone output, what's your headphone's impedance? Motu's output impedance is nearly 0 ohm vs Audient's 22 ohms. Motu is suitable for lower impedance headphones. I feel Motu sounds a little warmer than Audient but I can't say if it's just illusion.

This is great to know. What are your PC specs like?

 

[MCH]

Hi,
To connect the motu m4 to a balanced Amp ( @boXem | audio nc252), these cables?

Adam Hall 4 Star Series Microphone Cable Rean XLR Male to 6.3 mm Stereo Jack 0.6 m : Amazon.de: Musical Instruments & DJ

Adam Hall 4 Star Series Microphone Cable Rean XLR Male to 6.3 mm Stereo Jack 0.6 m : Amazon.de: Musical Instruments & DJ

www.amazon.de

I don't see anything in the description of the XLR - tsr cables Amazon sells that makes them different so I am assuming they are all the same? (talking about pin to pin connection)

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Hi,
To connect the motu m4 to a balanced Amp ( @boXem | audio nc252), these cables?

Adam Hall 4 Star Series Microphone Cable Rean XLR Male to 6.3 mm Stereo Jack 0.6 m : Amazon.de: Musical Instruments & DJ

Adam Hall 4 Star Series Microphone Cable Rean XLR Male to 6.3 mm Stereo Jack 0.6 m : Amazon.de: Musical Instruments & DJ

www.amazon.de

I don't see anything in the description of the XLR - tsr cables Amazon sells that makes them different so I am assuming they are all the same? (talking about pin to pin connection)

Thanks for the advice.

Those cables should work fine for you. Just make sure you get the correct gender for your use on the XLR end.

 

[Gzom]

Hi, do you need headphones amp only or also outputs for speakers ? and both separated ?
If headphones only and no need for multiple ouputs and no input, you should also look at headphones amp/DAC like the DX3 Pro+, but I'm not sure about the ASIO latency performance.
I can check on my Tone2 Pro if it's better or worst than on an audio interface

Thanks for the answer. I plan to use both headphone output and monitor output with a balanced input connection. Just sold DX3 Pro + to buy one of the above. I found a store with us that sells a new version of Motu. Maybe I’ll take it anyway) since ID14 is not available anywhere (

 

[Gzom]

This is great to know. What are your PC specs like?

Intel I5 4570 3.2, 16GB, SSD. WIN10 64b

 

[pmc_cmp]

No. The filter works in the same way in 44.1k and 48k, the response is proportional to the sample rate. 0.5fs means 0.5 * sample rate, so 22.05k for 44k sample rate and 24k for 48k sample rate.

View attachment 86176
View attachment 86170

 

[Gzom]

is there a review with measurements for a new revision of motu m2-4 relative to the old one?

 

[137tmxth]

is there a review with measurements for a new revision of motu m2-4 relative to the old one?

It seems the newer revisions mostly measure (slightly) better, but apparently rev1 can achieve lower latencies without glitching at least on some host systems.

Motu M4 Audio Interface Review

Thank you a lot again! I asked about the SSL2 and Clarett+ because of my indecision between the M4, ID14 MKII and Clarett+ 2Pre and the recent discovery of a like-new used SSL2 for a low price. I guess the ID14 MKII can be excluded. The Clarett+ 2Pre features optical input and probably a better...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Motu M4 Audio Interface Review

Given #1 should be the old version, which one do you think is better between #2 and #3? Then, how to make sure to purchase the better one between these two? #4 is the best one. Seriously though they all probably perform extremely similarly and you'd never tell a different between them.

www.audiosciencereview.com

Probably generally not worth it to spend any extra time/money to get a specific revision.

There have been some claims that only rev1 works in Linux or Windows older than 10, but I can say from personal experience that this isn't true. (rev2 and rev3 do not have officially supported and signed drivers for Win7/8 but they'll still work, and you can blame this on MS if official vendor support and driver signing important to you, on Linux you just need to make sure your kernel is not too old, it started working properly for me when I updated from 5.8 to 5.12)

If you buy new, you'll almost certainly get rev3 at this point. Maybe rev2, but there must not be much if any remaining stock of rev1 anymore.

 

[Gzom]

I bought a motu m4 of the latest revision. Thank you all for helping me figure it out. While I'm testing. I'll write a review later. I hope I made the right choice)

 

[agent_x007]

Can you post a pic of sticker on bottom ?
I would like to see if there is some text that is similar to mine.

 

[137tmxth]

Can you post a pic of sticker on bottom ?
I would like to see if there is some text that is similar to mine.

Not Gzom, but for what it's worth: my M4 is slightly different, copyright date is "2020, 2019" instead of "2019-2021". I bought it from Thomann summer last year. Had to wait for 2-3 weeks before they got some stock. (and after I got mine they almost immediately ran out of stock again and the price was raised further...)

I have not opened my unit yet so I don't know whether it's rev2 or rev3. My guess is rev2 based on date. I know it's definitely not rev1 though, it has an ARM CPU and uses the newer USB product ID.

Btw. the serial number can be used on MOTU's website to register the unit for support and to download the software bundle (Performer, Ableton Lite, instrument/sample packs). Might be a good idea to not show it in photos and screenshots, especially if you haven't used the serial yourself already. The barcode contains the serial, so you'll have to remove it too.

 

[agent_x007]

Thank you for information, but I don't have ability to change my post to delete my sticker picture at this moment :/
I am registred on Motu website, so I guess it doesn't matter ?