A lot of this has to do with what kind of software you are intending to use? If you want to use ProTools, you'll have to have a Digi design enabled/capable audio interface such as the Mbox family of products. If you purchase a Brick, you'll be able to use any other kind of software but not ProTools.

And this product only has a single microphone input so you can never do anything in stereo effectively without adding an external pair of microphone preamps, since a single other microphone preamp won't match the one in the Mbox, you'll have peculiar unmatched stereo.

When you realize that Digi design is one of the world's most popular hardware/software companies, you know it's microphone preamp won't be crap, even though it was not an original Digi design product. What can you expect?? What is it that you want to have? The specifications are all quite good. These are all professional devices and their quality is more than adequate for anything that you want to do. Does it have the sonic signature you want? It's hard to tell until you listen to it yourself and also largely depends on what kind of music you intend to record. It's not easy these days recording an entire symphony orchestra with a single microphone input but was popular about 80 years ago.

Mono Mama
Ms. Remy Ann David

The MBox2 has 2 mic pres in, and 2 line ins.

The pres on both the MBox2 and mini are adequate.

The pres on the original MBox however are pretty darn nice.
Ive kept mine!!!

U're saying the pre on the original MBox was nicer than the new ones?

U're saying the pre on the original MBox was nicer than the new ones?

YES

new mbox2 pres are garbage. nothing better than behringer.

the mbox2 is only riding on the success of the original mbox. just like the final pair of matrix movies. the second wasnt very good and the third was terrible.

just like the mbox2 pres.

Hi Gitboxchet,

I'm sorry to say that we had a corruption on the Recording.Org site over the Easter weekend, which meant we had to restore from the backup. It resulted in our losing about 6 hours worth of posts, which unfortunately included your post and the associated replies. However, I have email copies of the replies, but unfortunately not all of your initial post. I'm re-posting what I have, and please accept our apologies for the loss of part of your initial post.
Boswell (Moderator)

Post title: MBOX 2 Mic Pre any good?
Steinberg UR44 vs DigiDesign MBOX 2

Gitboxchet said:
I also heard that steinburg has noisy pre's?

pcrecord replied:
Most entry level preamps included in affordable audio interfaces will do a good job at recording.
Where they will fail is if you want to record a source that isn't loud with a mic that doesn't have high output..
What I mean is, they will all give you some noise if you push the gain to much.. (most will be noisy about 70% of the gain available.)

Boswell replied:
Not a lot has changed in the 15 years since the previous posts in this thread, but the Steinberg range has been refreshed. Of the two interfaces you mention, the Steinberg product has a better chance of being supported under modern (2021) operating systems, assuming you are referencing the UR44. Are four channels all you need? What other makes and models of audio interface have you considered? What's your budget?

Gitboxchet replied:
$300 bucks about. need 3-4 inputs and want to do live stream so loopback is helpful I really don't want to learn OBS if I don't have too.