Advice On Audio Interface Purchase

Does anyone have experience with the Audient EVO interfaces? I'm considering picking up the EVO 8 just because it has a few conveniences over my Scarlett 6i6 2nd gen:
  • 4 mic pres. I've got 3 mics to mic my two cabs.
  • Separate instrument input.
  • Quick way to mute outputs on the fly.
  • Compact form factor.
On the minus side it lacks SPDIF and dedicated headphone volumes. No idea about driver quality.
 
SPDIF is becoming more rare these days until you spend in the $600 price range. At least that's the case on the usual lower latency ,good driver platforms like MOTU, which is unfortunate that one has to go to the MK5 before this is an option.

It would be nice to have at least in the 4 or 6x4 versions price range.
 
Understood, they just don't exist in that form factor any longer, they will have optical for ADAT before SPDIF these days.

I'd have to echo what others have said MOTU (MK5 specifically ~ 650 w/o discounts) or a price jump up to RME for the baby face (Used FM3 price range) for the lowest possible latency drivers and SPDIF.

And on the MOTU MK5 RTA's you can't even visually tell when you're clipping like on the MK2, 4 or 6 with color RTA's. :facepalm

I've been banging my head for months trying to justify the spend just to get SPDIF without going babyface - Although I'd love to have one.
 
mavrick102000 said:
Understood, they just don't exist in that form factor any longer, they will have optical for ADAT before SPDIF these days.

I'd have to echo what others have said MOTU (MK5 specifically ~ 650 w/o discounts) or a price jump up to RME for the baby face (Used FM3 price range) for the lowest possible latency drivers and SPDIF.

And on the MOTU MK5 RTA's you can't even visually tell when you're clipping like on the MK2, 4 or 6 with color RTA's. :facepalm

I've been banging my head for months trying to justify the spend just to get SPDIF without going babyface - Although I'd love to have one.
Click to expand...
I've been also curious about the Arturia Audiofuse Studio because the I/O on those is a pretty killer set.

Just again no idea about driver quality or overall hardware quality. Arturia's website is what you get when you let designers run free. Their forums don't paint a particularly rosy picture about the audio interfaces, but these kind of forums tend to only show issues.
 
laxu said:
I've been also curious about the Arturia Audiofuse Studio because the I/O on those is a pretty killer set.

Just again no idea about driver quality or overall hardware quality. Arturia's website is what you get when you let designers run free. Their forums don't paint a particularly rosy picture about the audio interfaces, but these kind of forums tend to only show issues.
Click to expand...
Same with Native Instruments. The basic feature set looks good not "too much I/O" for basic users but has SPDIF under $200.

But NI isn't the fastest to respond to support, and their forums are an absolute shit show trying to find an answer. I like NI, I just don't fully trust VST companies to spend the sort of time and resources that MOTU/RME and to a certain extent Audient spend on their drivers and interface.

@Iron1 has had good success with his NI interface, but there are other reviews when you dig deeper that appear it may be a bit of a gamble.
 
You could consider an RME Digiface USB. Just Adat I/O but there's quite affordable front end solutions, so you could get one 8 channel I/O (say from Behringer) and pretty much any SPDIF/Toslink adapter (they're very cheap). The Digiface itself comes in at €444. World class driver support.
 
norminal said:
That’s what I’ve been finding in my search. I would love to find something in my budget with the footprint of the Audient id4 MKII with SPDIF.
Click to expand...
Check out the Black Lion Audio 2x2 or 6x6 revolution. Also Well known for their clocks.
 
Sascha Franck said:
EVO 8 test by german Bonedo webzine:
www.bonedo.de

Audient EVO 8 Test

Die größere Variante des EVO 4 ist nun auch verfügbar. Ob sich die Mehrausgabe lohnt?
www.bonedo.de www.bonedo.de
Click to expand...
Yeah that is garbage indeed. My Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 2nd gen from who knows how many years ago is like 4ms at 32 buffer size according to DAWBench results.

All this bullshit is why I can't seem to ever buy another audio interface when the next step up is 1000+ € rack unit from RME etc. God damn it Jim, I'm a hobbyist, not running a studio!

Does anyone else find RME's lineup offputting because of the weird names? The Fireface UCX II seems like the only "normal" desktop audio interface in their lineup and that has basically the same I/O as my cheapo Focusrite. For a long time I thought it was a Firewire audio interface because of the name.
 
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