The Best Audio Interface Under $2000

TIME STAMPS
00:00 Opening
00:17 Affiliate
00:40 Overview
01:59 UCX II
03:18 MT48
05:43 Symphony SD
07:51 Apollo
10:09 Sound Quality
10:55 A/D Vocal Test
12:40 D/A Comparison
18:37 Headphones
20:13 The Wife Test
22:08 Rankings
22:45 Workflow
26:06 Sound Quality
29:21 Value
31:57 And The Winner Is...

AUDIO INTERFACES IN THIS VIDEO

UAD Apollo X4

Apogee Symphony Desktop

Neumann MT48

RME UCX II

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[PhearNoneGearGadgets]

OOOOH I was waiting for this comparison, Great review! Have to try them all out.

[vzMedia]

Fire Video as usual fam! If you're a person that travels a lot or want to be as portable as possible think about the RME Babyface Pro FS as well. It's Bus Powered and has INSANE stability and low latency on both Mac and PC. It replaced my Apollo X4 due to stability issues on Windows and it's size when traveling. It's also half the price of these. Personally if I drop around $2k it'll be to upgrade my Rack Mount Interface in my home studio.

[ReignYLK]

In terms of sound quality, these are what I find on each of them from most to least favourite:
Neumann = immersive
Apogee = pristine
Apollo = natural
RME = transparent

I enjoy producing on my Apogee SD but when I mix on it, it can be a bit too pleasant sometimes. It translates well but at the same time also brings emotion in the translation which can be somewhat distracting when you try to be critical. I’m not saying it’s colored. It’s transparent. The sound is full and in 3D in a good way.
I don’t know, man. May be I need a pair of speakers which are quite clinical to compensate on it. 😂

[Neekzu]

1. Neumann
2. RME
3. Apogee
4. UAD

I had the Neumann MT 48 and UAD Apollo X6, X8 and some Twins back in 2021 in my studio. But back to 2024 the Neumann MT 48 came out on top as absolut king in my testing and stayed as main interface for my studio.

[JoeriAksel]

Love your review! Opinionated, well argued, and focused on real world aspects rather than pure specs. Thanks for sharing the audio files!

[xmarc]

Hey man, Thanks for your great review. became a new subscriber.
I just wanted to comment on what I think is one of the most important feature on the MT48 as the owner which did not get mentioned too much in the video. And it is the Audio Networking (Audio over IP) Capability of the interface.

Having native support to the AES67 means that it has the ability to grow its input and output to 128 ins and outs by using the virtual sound card on your computer and could integrate the MT48 into it.
You could also connect it to dante-enabled products such as Yamaha Rios for more analog inputs and outs.
You could convert the audio to SFP or madi and have a fiber cable deliver your audio to destinations only capable with such cable.
Clock syncing and working together with other devices such as media servers, lighting equipment and so on could be done via the network.

above are just examples of what could be achieved with audio over IP and it surely makes your studio a lot more flexible and expandable.
The prices might look a bit high for MT48 when you compare the interfaces you mentioned the video, but I personally feel that the audio over IP capabilities of the interface more than justifies the cost of the device.

Of course, I understand that many of the viewers might not need such a feature, and thus went over it briefly in the video. So please understand that I'm in no way trying to point fingers or criticize the opinions in the video and in the comment section.

Just wanted to provide extra context haha.
but anyways, thanks for your content and hope to see great content like this in the future as well.

[donwells]

RME is rock stable. Best drivers, period. especially for pc. they make their own from scratch. they still support and update drivers for products they discontinued decades ago. Plus totalmix is a game changer. I have 3 rme interfaces, adi2 pro fs r, babyface (original), and HDSP 9632.

[sandyhollowstudio]

from what I could hear from both tests is that my favorite out of these is the RME. It doesn't have the depth as some of the others put it's the tightest and most pleasing to my ears. I'm currently using a Lynx Hilo and I'd strongly recommend checking one out if you haven't already.

[chronex.]

I bought last year a used RME FireFace UCX 1 for 630€ and im sooo Happy with this Interface, TotalMix is also wonderful (Once you understand it, it's like riding a bike) .

That was the best decision in my life, ngl

[darkmaer]

I am an RME guy. Got a UFX+ and a Babyface pro FS. I mainly went with REI for the rock solid drivers and I know that we support my interfaces for 20+ years. And when you’re spending $3000 for an interface, that’s the way it should be. The fact that it sounds good is icing on top of the cake for me. And they keep on giving me stuff like the new room option and total mix FX.

[hayesbrotha]

I’ve had all the brands. Hands down RME IS KING 👑

[BengtSkogvall]

I have an RME and I love it. When first listeningen to it, I thought the sound was "thin", but that is because it is so clean as it has extremly low harmonic distortion. It is also very flat also in the high frequency range, which may make you think it has too much of it.

The other interfaces have varying degrees of extra harmonic distortion and as this is what we are used to listening to in modern music, I assume this is the reason you liked the sound of the other intefaces more.

If you record with the RME, you will have to add extra harmonic distortion later during mixing to get to the sound of modern music. With RME you get almost 0 harmonic distortion from the interface, so you can pick any type of saturation you like. Or leave it out completely for that extra clean and crispy sound. Your choise.

[djvictornova]

Its interesting how the neuman sounds very different to all the others, it almost sounds like mono, and you hear that in the vocal and clap .. Im my opinion the Apogee sounds smoother and most balanced ... Great review Jack

[yshxy]

Amazing. My favorite is :

For Vocal:

1. Apogee
2. Neumann
3. RME
4. UAD

For Monitors :

1. Neumann
2. Apogee
3. UAD
4. RME

I have a UAD SOLO and I'm thinking of going for the APOGEE, because the sound it delivers is everything I like.

Thanks for this amazing review! <3

[Circharles]

My two choices are the apogee symphony to Neumann mt48 as far as sound quality goes. Id go with the Neumann for the features and more I/o than the symphony.

If you thinking long term, RME is the goat

[aholder]

love the vid, just throwing this out there, those jacks that accept both xlr and 1/4" inputs are commonly called combo jacks. Just in case you do more of these, which I hope you do, maybe this tid bit will help you out. So I couldn't help but notice that all of the interfaces you reviewed were all desktop units, and none from the rack mount form factor, which, for under 2G it should be pretty easy to have some really top notch rack units in there, and a lot of them will have a lot more onboard preamps, commonly 8 mic preamps on the 1U rack unit interfaces. And there are a lot of good units like that from manufacturers like MOTU, Presonus, Focusrite, UA, Apogee, Lynx, Behringer, yeah i know, but they are slept on and not really that bad. I've gotten great recordings from an X32 more times than I can count. Heck, for less than 2G, you can get a x32 now, and a bunch of other digital mixing consoles that have built in USB audio interfaces that enable you to get really high simultaneously recording track counts an)d a lot more including DAW control and a live digital console for performance. I feel like your review is aimed at producers that are generally doing a lot of VST's and maybe recording a guitar or bass guitar one at a time, and then doing some vocal overdubs, maybe trying to get a few keyboards in to the computer, but for the people that are trying to record whole bands playing the song live, (which is 100% necessary for the right feel if you ask me, if you overdub everything it will loose something, every time, I wish that it didn't but it does) they are going to need at least 8 mic inputs simultaneously and ideally the ability to make 4 separate headphone mixes, one for each player. At l east 2 separate headphone mixes, one for the vocalist and one for the band, or one for the drummer that has the click and one for the rest of the band. These are the choices you'll have to make if you don't have the ability to have more than 2 headphone mixes. The nice thing about that RME that you showed, is that it has the ability to use all of it's outputs as separate headphone mixes, you would just have to hook it up to a decent headphone amp. And if you add more inputs and outputs via one of the digital inputs like the ADAT lightpipe input, then you can use all of those outputs as well. The mixing app RME includes in their software is really great for tracking live bands, but let's be real, RME is a top tier interface manufacturer. They ain't no slouch. Having said that, an X32 which you can pick up for around 1400 used these days, also has the ability to have 8 separate stereo headphone mixes because it has like 16 XLR outputs right on the back of it. That is not including your main XLR outs or the 8 quarter inch aux in and outs that you can use to route effects in your studio. Anyone that tells you that you can't get great sounding recordings from something like a x32 is just lying to you. The difference between these units is honestly miniscule, and more often than not, has more to do with how much they cost or how much the person telling you about it actually spent on it. The RME is rock solid and their software is highly capable and you totally get what you pay for, but it isn't going to sound that much better than an x32, which input for input is probably the cheapest option, I mean you get 32 simultaneous inputs and 16 simultaneous outputs with an x32, with a 32x32 usb interface with it, that means you can record 32 inputs all at the same time into your DAW, all for the low price of 2G as of today. And you get an actual physical console that you can use either for your studio or live, you can use to take with you to record live also. They even have an expansion card that allows you to record and playback 32 tracks at a time without a computer straight to an external hard drive or dual SD cards. You can just keep some big SD cards in there and anytime anywhere, just hit record and it's recording whatever is playing through the board, all multitrack without a computer attached. That's just too cool if you ask me. So if you want to buy into the UA Apollo ecosystem and get the benefit of it's onboard DSP so that you can track through their plugins in real time, then by all means, do that. And that might be the best option especially for the desktop producers out there who are just recording vocal overdubs every now and then and also oing a lot of other production work with beat machines, keyboards, and VST instruments. The Neumann is definitely geared towards someone that wants the highest quality inputs and AD/DA for the money but what brings it down is the fact that the RME has awesome converters on it too. They are known for that, Neumann makes great microphones and is brand new in the interface world, this is their first offering of a music interface, keep that in mind. RME has been making only audio interfaces and ADDA converters. That is all they do. And they are really good at it. So I wouldn't sleep on that interface, but it's probably going to shine for someone that wants to add an additional preamp with more inputs and outputs to it, and use it as a desktop controller too. Just my 2 cents or 26 or whatever cents...Peace.

[ITSYABOYDONTE]

i own an rme ucx ii. i have researched all of these. for anyone interested definitely do a deeper dive into your research and what your needs are. The rme is probably the best interface of the four. it probably has the best clocking and the best conversion and its suppose to sound completely transparent with no coloration. totalmix software gives you the best routing and you get the most features. but to each his own...hopefully you do your own additional research because these are not cheap interfaces.

[scorpion-unitrap]

Hi, thanks for this comparison, personally I have been using an X6 and a Twin X for about 5 years, I also have RME Babyface. All the interfaces are extremely top and sound really good. After that it will depend on what you want to do with it. I like the Apollo system and its Plugins, because in my opinion, when recording it is the closest to real studio conditions, but that's just my opinion. Luna is really fantastic in recording, yeah always the impression of working on a big analog console ...

[marvsowell]

Thanks for this! I have been on the fence about upgrading my Apollo Twin X. Like you, I love the workflow and the plugins. My main reason to upgrade would be for noticeable ad/da improvement, but I think from your testing these other units, the difference is so marginal and subjective. I’m gonna keep my Apollo Twin X for a while longer, and see what UA does on the next Apollo Twin and X4 release. Thanks again!