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Presonus Audiobox USB review

Features 9.5/10

The Audiobox USB is well equipped. The only thing that I wish it had is the possibility to swich the direct monitor to stereo mode.

There are no PAD buttons for inputs, however input gain ranges from -10 to 30dB for instrument inputs and 0 to 60dB for mic inputs. People say that some guitars are too hot for these preamps but I cannot confirm this even with EMG 707s.

Features:

• Zero Latency Direct Monitor with mixer knob (playback/inputs)
• 2 Mic/Line/Inst combo inputs
• Phantom Power
• Headphones out
• MIDI I/O
• USB powered

Sound quality 8.5/10

The Audiobox USB is a typical USB audio interface. It doesn't sound exceptionally good but you can't complain, especially given its price. Compared to the Firestudio Mobile it sounds less detailed but also more natural and less digital.

Round trip latency

The interface is well suited for recording vocals, amps and effects processors because of the real zero latency direct monitor.

The lowest round trip latency for this interface is 7.460ms (44.1kHz, ASIO buffer set to 64 samples, Windows 8.1 64-bit, driver version 1.3). It's enough for playing through guitar amp plug-ins.

Ease of use 10/10

This interface is super easy to use, there are no sophisticated software control panels, only ASIO buffer size window. Everything else is on the front panel of the interface. Under OS X it doesn't need drivers - it's class compliant and it just works.

Price 10/10

The price is fine, it's a well equipped, decent sounding audio interface.

Advantages

Features

Ease of use

Sound quality

Real zero latency direct monitor

Drawbacks

I wish it had a mono/stereo switch for the direct monitor

Product page on www.presonus.com

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• How to choose an audio interface for recording guitars
• Audio interface round trip latency database
• The lowest round trip latency audio interface for PC