MOTU M6 Audio Interface Review

[dasdoing]

Once more you are not understanding the nature of testing. My intent is to level the playing field to get all devices, if possible, to capture at their full dynamic range. And this is near 0 dBFS with 4 volt input. If the only way to get there is by using the trim, I will do that.

As I said, I personally do that with my interface, setting my compressor to maximize the dynamic range by getting close but not exceeding 0 dBFS.

By your logic, the trim control should not be there.

what do you actually mean by trim? the knobs on the front?
they control the pre-amp gain for mic and instrument inputs. line signals don't need gain.
input 1 and 2 are rated as up to +10dBu afaik. you sent 14dBu and applied additional gain to it. so we have a situation where the specs say it will distort because the signal is too hot.
now +18 shouldn't distort according to specs on the dedicated line-ins.

about you wanting to maximize dynamic range: does this make sense? where is the noisefloor of this signal you are feeding from your compressor?
it doesn't make sense to add gain in the analog domain to this signal. you take care of this in your DAW

 

[dasdoing]

with that beeing said. the specs are indeed confusing as they should clarify that TRS inputs from 1-4 are rated up to +10dBu

 

[NielsMayer]

What happens when you plug the M6 into a Linux system?

In the past, MOTU has had terrible Linux support. Has this changed?

 

[dasdoing]

What happens when you plug the M6 into a Linux system?

In the past, MOTU has had terrible Linux support. Has this changed?

these new cheap devices don't have nothing onboard, so they don't need a driver at all:

MOTU M4

MOTU decided to get into the budget market and I'm really curious to see what they can deliver in the $200 price range. Let's plug it in and see if it knows how to Linux.

interfacinglinux.com

their pro-devices are probably still problematic

 

[designfx]

What happens when you plug the M6 into a Linux system?

In the past, MOTU has had terrible Linux support. Has this changed?

I've tested over a dozen audio interfaces on various Linux distros, including the MOTU M4, and as long as they were class compliant, then they worked fine. So I can confirm the M4 works well on current mainstream Linux distros out of the box (such as Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc.), and since the M6 is also class compliant, I would expect it to do the same.

 

[designfx]

their pro-devices are probably still problematic

Yes, it depends entirely on what functionality you want to get out of the devices... for example, the UltraLite Mk5 is technically class compliant, and will show up in Linux, but you'll obviously miss out on the advanced native driver functionality. That may or may not be important to someone, obviously. Suggest to buy from a place you can return it to and test for oneself to see if the functionality is adequate. But for the simpler interfaces like the M-series, they're pretty good on Linux IMO.

 

[dasdoing]

Yes, it depends entirely on what functionality you want to get out of the devices... for example, the UltraLite Mk5 is technically class compliant, and will show up in Linux, but you'll obviously miss out on the advanced native driver functionality. That may or may not be important to someone, obviously. Suggest to buy from a place you can return it to and test for oneself to see if the functionality is adequate. But for the simpler interfaces like the M-series, they're pretty good on Linux IMO.

there might be hope: https://interfacinglinux.com/community/linuxaudiosofware/motu-cuemix-5-for-linux/

personally I am glad I don't have to deal with Linux anymore lol.
after 16 years or so I went back to Win11 and never looked back

 

[designfx]

there might be hope: https://interfacinglinux.com/community/linuxaudiosofware/motu-cuemix-5-for-linux/

personally I am glad I don't have to deal with Linux anymore lol.
after 16 years or so I went back to Win11 and never looked back

Very cool! Thanks for that link. Nice to see them making an effort like that.

As for Linux for pro audio production, I hope to move my studio over to Linux one day, but as it is right now, I am just in a holding pattern and using it on the side, so I keep a Linux DAW for testing and experimentation. The potential is all there, lots of excellent native apps and plugins, etc., just not everything I personally need yet. So for now it's just a distant hope.

My main DAW work is on Cubase and Nuendo on Windows 11. Cubase/Nuendo 14 have been an outstanding upgrade, best in years IMO, very impressed by what Steinberg has done recently. I've got many other DAW apps, but this generation from Steinberg is the complete package for what I do.

Anyway, I don't mean to go OT. Thanks again for that link.

And back to the M6 -- I anticipate those interested in Linux will have no problem taking advantage of it.

 

[mdsimon2]

there might be hope: https://interfacinglinux.com/community/linuxaudiosofware/motu-cuemix-5-for-linux/

personally I am glad I don't have to deal with Linux anymore lol.
after 16 years or so I went back to Win11 and never looked back

Very cool, thanks for sharing!

Another thing that works well is using nginx to forward to a Mac or PC on the same network. I have my UL Mk5 connected to a raspberry pi and use Cuemix on a Mac laptop, just need to enter the IP address or host name of the raspberry pi in Cuemix and it acts like the UL Mk5 is connected to Mac.

I agree with others that the M series works well with Linux but also has no software. In my experience the AVB was bad news on linux and would result in channel swapping / bit crushing, even if just being used as a dumb multichannel DAC.

Michael

 

[NielsMayer]

Thanks for all your answers regarding current state of MOTU on Linux.

While browsing some of the links, I realized @amirm needed to trademark or copyright the name "audio science"

AudioScience ASI5211

Join me on an adventure filled with fussy hardware, bad documentation, and tech gremlin wrangling!

interfacinglinux.com

Too bad there's not more interfaces like this for Linux https://github.com/NielsMayer/mudita24 (shameless plug)

 

[Pariah Zero]

What happens when you plug the M6 into a Linux system?

In the past, MOTU has had terrible Linux support. Has this changed?

Depends a bit on your audio backend, but I have Pipewire as the backend, and can confirm that all of the inputs display correctly, and audio output and input through Microphone input #1 works fine.

I had no problem using the M6 with the REAPER DAW.

 

[bequietjk]

Is it reasonable to claim the MK5 as a better upgrade for ADC purposes value-wise than the M6 coming from a Motu M2/M4?

 

[Pariah Zero]

Is it reasonable to claim the MK5 as a better upgrade for ADC purposes value-wise than the M6 coming from a Motu M2/M4?

There's no question that the ADC on the MK5 scores quite a bit better for SINAD. There are, as always, considerations:

• The MK5 also costs ~50% more.
• The MK5 has many more in/out in general.
• The M6, however, has twice as many phantom-powered mic inputs and preamps (the Mk5 has two, the M6 has 4)
  • Microphones are noisy devices, with SNR of the best mics in the ~78-85 dB range
  • Studio mics produce between 5-20(+) dB of self-noise in perfect silence.

As they say, Your Mileage May Vary: If you want to use four mics, the M6 can do the job, while the MK5 can't, and the M6 costs 50% less.

If you are using more than one microphone, the lower SINAD from the M6 isn't quite as bad as it looks, as the input instruments (ie. the mics) are far and away the largest noise source.

 

[ssashton]

Just read this review and think it could help to highlight my recent post about fixing ADC bias on my M4

 

[Pydn4]

The 70Hz - 20kHz spec sticks out more. Haven't seen an input cutting so early anywhere else.

I just did a test sweep and the front TRS in on my MOTU M4 goes right down to 20Hz so I believe this 70Hz is likely a typo.

 

[mlke]

Can someone put the headphone amp measurements into perspective for me...I've been debating whether I really need a separate headphone amp for my beyerdynamic dt 900 pro x's...they have an impedance of 48 ohms. From these measurements the THD at max volume is -59 db or about 0.11% with a 33 ohm load...Now I do music production and mixing ITB just for myself to be clear. But the distortion amount seems to be in the range of nearly inaudible to great? Is the assessment here really just comparing THD to the best of the best? I'm looking at Topping amp measurements and sure they look much better but is this something people think is very noticeable, especially if my headphones get to about 85db SPL (c-weighted) at just half gain on the front knob? I don't really know where that would land me on the distortion curve but I'm guessing it's at about -75db or lower and even less audible.

As a follow-up, my guess from this is that if I wanted to get a planar magnetic headphone with lower impedance the distortion would be worse and could be a reason to upgrade...but that doesn't appear to be an issue with my current beyers.

 

[levimax]

Can someone put the headphone amp measurements into perspective for me...I've been debating whether I really need a separate headphone amp for my beyerdynamic dt 900 pro x's...they have an impedance of 48 ohms. From these measurements the THD at max volume is -59 db or about 0.11% with a 33 ohm load...Now I do music production and mixing ITB just for myself to be clear. But the distortion amount seems to be in the range of nearly inaudible to great? Is the assessment here really just comparing THD to the best of the best? I'm looking at Topping amp measurements and sure they look much better but is this something people think is very noticeable, especially if my headphones get to about 85db SPL (c-weighted) at just half gain on the front knob? I don't really know where that would land me on the distortion curve but I'm guessing it's at about -75db or lower and even less audible.

As a follow-up, my guess from this is that if I wanted to get a planar magnetic headphone with lower impedance the distortion would be worse and could be a reason to upgrade...but that doesn't appear to be an issue with my current beyers.

The distortion isn't the issue, it is that the headphone section can only put out 25 mw before clipping (at that point distortion goes way up). Most of the good dedicated headphone amps have over (some well over) 200 mw output before clipping. For 25 mw and under the built in headphone amp is fine. How loud you listen to headphones depends on your use case and preference. For many purposes 25 mw is fine, but if you want to listen really loud and or the music has a lot of dynamic peaks it isn't enough.

 

[mlke]

The distortion isn't the issue, it is that the headphone section can only put out 25 mw before clipping (at that point distortion goes way up). Most of the good dedicated headphone amps have over (some well over) 200 mw output before clipping. For 25 mw and under the built in headphone amp is fine. How loud you listen to headphones depends on your use case and preference. For many purposes 25 mw is fine, but if you want to listen really loud and or the music has a lot of dynamic peaks it isn't enough.

ok thanks, so it's more about that clipping threshold and max power output, less about added harmonics I would potentially hear while I turn the gain knob up (until I hit that threshold).

 

[levimax]

ok thanks, so it's more about that clipping threshold and max power output, less about added harmonics I would potentially hear while I turn the gain knob up (until I hit that threshold).

yes