MOTU UltraLite-mk5 Review (Audio Interface)

[differenceclouds]

I also tried following those instructions but it never worked. In any case it would be inconvenient to control from a smartphone in my opinion...

Anyway, does anyone know if there is another way to power on/off the Mk5?
That knob is really uncomfortable, and I have an idea that one day or another it will break... and at that point I think it is unusable.
The first time I plugged it in it turned on by itself, but then I've never been able to do it again...

it turns on automatically if you plug it in, so you could just use a power strip or something. I wouldn't worry about the knob wearing out or even turning it off at all for that matter.

 

[MCH]

I also tried following those instructions but it never worked. In any case it would be inconvenient to control from a smartphone in my opinion...

Anyway, does anyone know if there is another way to power on/off the Mk5?
That knob is really uncomfortable, and I have an idea that one day or another it will break... and at that point I think it is unusable.
The first time I plugged it in it turned on by itself, but then I've never been able to do it again...

My umk5 has "on/off" memory:
If you unplug it while on it will return to on and if you unplug it while off it will return to off. I find this quite handy to use power switches to do on/off and Motu has confirmed to me this is fine to do (specifically interrupting DC supply, that is what I asked)

 

[Pancreas]

I never power it off, I just let it go sleep when my computer goes to sleep, the genelec go to sleep too, then the MK5 starts doing the ping pong

 

[MCH]

I never power it off, I just let it go sleep when my computer goes to sleep, the genelec go to sleep too, then the MK5 starts doing the ping pong

Mine enters that ping pong screen also while working.
I might be wrong but I don't think the ultralite has a real sleep mode, actually the fact that the display stays on already tells something.
A while ago I tried to find figures of power consumption in different scenarios but I didn't find anything.
In older versions, Motu defined a sort of sleep mode that resulting from pressing the off button.

 

[Pancreas]

ping pong happens when there is no signal after a while

i see no reason to turn it off

Motu said there is no problem with leaving it on all the time

My computer I turn off and the Genelec go to sleep mode as there is no signal

The reason i turn off my computer is even on sleep mode it makes noise, i dont like that when sleeping

 

[Davide]

Mk5 has not a sleep mode, ping pong is just to prevent oled burn in.
However, there's no reason to keep it on when not in use. It waste energy and stays warm unnecessarily, reducing the useful life of internal components.

Anyway, mine won't turn on if I remove the power and put it back on...
What firmware do you have?

 

[MCH]

Mk5 has not a sleep mode, ping pong is just to prevent oled burn in.
However, there's no reason to keep it on when not in use. It waste energy and stays warm unnecessarily, reducing the useful life of internal components.

Anyway, mine won't turn on if I remove the power and put it back on...
What firmware do you have?

Version 1.2.0+2467
I would ask Motu, they always answer in my experience. Good luck.

 

[Pancreas]

Mk5 has not a sleep mode, ping pong is just to prevent oled burn in.
However, there's no reason to keep it on when not in use. It waste energy and stays warm unnecessarily, reducing the useful life of internal components.

Anyway, mine won't turn on if I remove the power and put it back on...
What firmware do you have?

Unnecessary worry lol Ive read of peoole with cheaper interface who have never powered them off in 10 years.

Couldn’t care less about the little energy it uses as long as is convenient.

There is also the argument that turning on and off a apparatus actuallys shortens its life more than leaving it on.

Notice how all hospitals, government and any business always leave their computers, devices etc ON all the time

 

[Pancreas]

Does the Motu mk5 decode surround?

The manual says it does surround monitoring

In summary, if I connect 5 speakers to the Moku mk5, would I be able to experience true surround? Unless it has a decoder I dont see how is possible

 

[Davide]

Version 1.2.0+2467
I would ask Motu, they always answer in my experience. Good luck.

Same as mine. Strange...
I'll try to ask Motu, but I've asked them a thousand technical questions before and they don't always know how to answer.
They often have to ask the development team, which obviously won't respond happy and ready...

Unnecessary worry lol Ive read of peoole with cheaper interface who have never powered them off in 10 years.

Couldn’t care less about the little energy it uses as long as is convenient.

That the consumption is low and the heat does not reduce the useful life more than the on/off cycles (perhaps) do, it can certainly be. The fact remains that it is useless to waste energy...however little

Does the Motu mk5 decode surround?

It doesn't have a decoder. You need a decoder in your PC or Mac, that can be routed to various channels.

 

[vertumno]

View attachment 264461

Is there a way to visually tell which is the pre 2022 and after 2022 model with slightly different components?

thank you

 

[carat]

Is there a way to visually tell which is the pre 2022 and after 2022 model with slightly different components?

thank you

Isn’t the revision number on the sticker? Otherwise, shine a light through the ventilation slits and look for the electrolytic capacitors at the back. That’s one distinctive difference. Look at the PCB photos linked earlier in the thread. The newer model has a double row of caps. The older model has the holes and markings for the caps but they aren’t installed.

 

[howard416]

Does anyone know the material of the signal contacts on the TRS jacks on this unit? Gold-plated, or nickel-plated?

 

[Pancreas]

Same as mine. Strange...
I'll try to ask Motu, but I've asked them a thousand technical questions before and they don't always know how to answer.
They often have to ask the development team, which obviously won't respond happy and ready...

That the consumption is low and the heat does not reduce the useful life more than the on/off cycles (perhaps) do, it can certainly be. The fact remains that it is useless to waste energy...however little

It doesn't have a decoder. You need a decoder in your PC or Mac, that can be routed to various channels.

Its not wasteful energy if is saving me body energy lmao plus im paying for that little extra energy it may consumes

 

[howard416]

Does anyone know the material of the signal contacts on the TRS jacks on this unit? Gold-plated, or nickel-plated?

Bump

 

[carat]

Bump

Hard to get a photo of the contacts, but on my r1.6 it seems to be gold in the front and nickel in the rear. I stress r1.6 because they could easily have switched the parts in the newer version.

 

[howard416]

Awesome, thanks so much for the photos!

 

[vertumno]

I've measured Ultralite MK5 resulting latency in Logic Pro.
This is not RTL and it's useful for people needing to work in the box with virtual instruments, the larger the latency the wider is the delta between hitting a key and hearing a sound.

Motu Ultralite MK5 Resulting latency:
12,2 ms Roundtrip (6,0 ms output)
Buffer 128 samples
No MOTU drivers

Connected using the thunderbolt4 port of a Mac Mini M2
running Logic Pro 10.7.9

With Motu drivers the numbers improved to:
6,9 ms Roundtrip (3,4 ms output)
Buffer 128 samples
Motu drivers

To give you a comparison same set up with a Presonus Quantum2 gave these results:

Presonus Quantum2 Resulting latency:
6,3 ms roundtrip (3,3 output)
Buffer 128 samples

Connected using the thunderbolt4 port of a Mac Mini M2
running Logic Pro 10.7.9

 

[howard416]

Hard to get a photo of the contacts, but on my r1.6 it seems to be gold in the front and nickel in the rear. I stress r1.6 because they could easily have switched the parts in the newer version.

Looks like mine is exactly the same. I guess I can save a few bucks with nickel-plated TRS plugs... but I wish Motu used gold all around. I can't imagine people would be plugging and unplugging into this unit so often that the extra wear resistance from nickel would be that much of a benefit over gold.

 

[Davide]

Thought I'd also share here, I also just submitted the same as a Feature Request (ticket #MTL176027) to MOTU:

If this is important to anyone else here, I'd encourage you to please submit similar feedback to MOTU.

If @Dlomb11, @somebodyelse, and/or others get anything further working or find other ways to have some level of API access into the mk5 outside of CueMix, I'd be very interested.

I have definitely given up on it.
Has anyone made any progress regarding remote control via IP interface?