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I may have mentioned it before but after listening the Audient's, I'm pretty much sold on them. It's been almost 10 years since the eleven rack was out so I'm sure technology has got better. Audient id14 is about 4 years old? now and I know in some cases people will say older is better but when it comes to home recording, getting newer usually means better performance but again, certainly not in all cases. I'm asking more now because the drivers for the id14 and id22 are supposed to be solid but, I don't own one so I cannot really comment. id14 is around £170 but id22 is around £300. What is the extra £130 giving me? I did think about Steinberg ur44 since the newer ones are out and the prices have dropped. I have had Focusrite 6i6 but I really don't like them for a number of reasons. I hate having ideas and not knowing what to. If it helps I will post my spec and what the Eleven Rack latency is like but sound wise after hearing the Audient, it really is night and day. Maybe it isn't worth getting anything at all? I must stress I don't want a comparison link because I have seen many of those and read many reviews and watched tons of videos but most are pretty old now. This is more for the people that have used them or have knowledge about them in 2019 due to the newer drivers. I'm happy to hear about anything you might be using in the price bracket and why it may be better than Audient. This is all for home use and it will be just me plugging my guitar straight in using many plugins/software and creating a full song.

Windows 10 64bit
Intel I7 8700
32gb ddr4
Gtx 1060 6gb
Samsung Evo ssd
Cubase Artist 10 Latency - 9.365 on 44.1 kHz
Eleven Rack Buffer size - 288

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Boswell Fri, 12/13/2019 - 11:02

From the Audient website:

Features Common To Both The iD14 & iD22

  • David Dearden designed Mic Preamps From The ASP8024 Console
  • ADAT Input
  • 10 Inputs in total
  • JFET DI instrument input
  • Independent Class AB Headphone output
  • Individual 48v Phantom Power Switching
  • Low latency DSP Mixer
  • Kensington lock
  • Neutrik Combo Connectors on the inputs
  • Hand milled metal knobs
  • USB2.0 connectivity

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Features Only Available On the iD22

  • ADAT Output
  • 2 extra line outputs
  • 2 balanced insert points
  • Individual Pad switches on the 2 inputs
  • Individual Hi Pass filters on the 2 inputs
  • Individual Polarity switches on the 2 inputs
  • Dim & Cut Switches On Monitoring
  • 3 User Programmable keys
  • 1 extra cue mix

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Features Only Available On The iD14

  • Supports Bus Power
  • ScrollControl DAW Control

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A comment on the Audient products (I have no commercial relationship with Audient):
A couple of months back I booked a session at a commercial (PT) studio to record an acoustic band. I went with my Audient ASP880 under my arm (having pre-arranged it with the studio). We did the first set using the studio's Digidesign/PT pre-amps, and on the replay, identified quite a few performance points that needed attention. While they were all listening to the whole replay, I swapped 8 channels of mic pre-amps into the ASP880 (connecting to the studio's rig via ADAT), and we repeated the set. On listening, the sonic difference was huge. The realism was astounding through the Audient, easily equal to pre-amps + converters double their price or even more.

The same basic design of pre-amps is used in all the Audient products, so you would get this in both the iD14 and the iD22. I don't own either of those two products, so can't comment on the device driver stability, but I have worked with musicians who use them and have heard no negative comments.

jamie Lofts Fri, 12/13/2019 - 12:31

jamie Lofts, post: 462900, member: 51509 wrote: I must stress I don't want a comparison link because I have seen many of those and read many reviews and watched tons of videos but most are pretty old now. This is more for the people that have used them or have knowledge about them in 2019 due to the newer drivers. I'm happy to hear about anything you might be using in the price bracket and why it may be better than Audient. This is all for home use and it will be just me plugging my guitar straight in using many plugins/software and creating a full song.

But I do appreciate the help.

kmetal Fri, 12/13/2019 - 13:09

To me cross grading from a scarlett to an id, is going to offer little improvement unless it was an even swap. Otherwise there's a huge amount of diminishing returns. Your paying double the cost by having 2x of the similar priced units, and getting a mildly better unit. The differences among entry level units are minimal. Its better to get a unit thats actually in a different performance class, even if its older, or save more $. The clarett has a unit not much more than the audient, and much better spec.

jamie Lofts Fri, 12/13/2019 - 13:32

kmetal, post: 462908, member: 37533 wrote: To me cross grading from a scarlett to an id, is going to offer little improvement unless it was an even swap. Otherwise there's a huge amount of diminishing returns. Your paying double the cost by having 2x of the similar priced units, and getting a mildly better unit. The differences among entry level units are minimal. Its better to get a unit thats actually in a different performance class, even if its older, or save more $. The clarett has a unit not much more than the audient, and much better spec.

Well I would be going from my Eleven Rack to Audient so wouldn't that be deemed as an upgrade? The Eleven rack is discontinued and is very rarely talked about these days.

kmetal Fri, 12/13/2019 - 14:02

jamie Lofts, post: 462909, member: 51509 wrote: Well I would be going from my Eleven Rack to Audient so wouldn't that be deemed as an upgrade? The Eleven rack is discontinued and is very rarely talked about these days.

The 11r started out at around $800 and is based around the digi003 interface. When it was closeout priced earlier this year, it was 2-300$. They don't publish the spec so its difficult to compare converter spec. I bought 2x 11r's when they were at closeout.

To me its a crossgrade. Your again paying another 300 for a mild upgrade. Essentially doubling your cost, and not nearly doubling performance sonically. Focusrite and rme have some of the lowest latency usb drivers around. Audient may out perform 11 in that area, but again, by how much.? You can decrease latency by running at a higher sample rate, and the 288 buffer size is kinda on the high side for realtime performance. Anything 256 and above is when i get uncomfortable with the delay.

If Sonics are your concern, something like an audient mico, or a presonus eureka (with digital option) might go alot further than cross grading between entry level interfaces. The 11 was mid level back when it was released, but its dsp is it's main feature.

A used eureka is well within the audient id price and the mico not too far away. This gives you a high quality front end and bypasses the 11 converters and pre which are vanilla.

My 11s are still boxed and i only used my cousins as a guitar amp sim into his apollo so i can't attest to its conversion or pre quality in standalone, but its conversion sounded ok for guitar stuff.