Originally Posted By: Guitarhacker
I still say you get what you pay for.

Size alone says you're getting more for the cost with the full sized interfaces vs the subcompacts..... and the small gizmo's don't have external controls, meters, or phantom power with low Z inputs among the other options on the full sized ones.

You should not have to use 2 interfaces or sound cards to record and playback properly. One card/interface should do the job. Problems with timing sync can and do occur with 2 cards. That's a whole other direction for a discussion. The goal is to have one interface doing the job properly.

Referring to the subcompact cards......However, give it a try.... the worst that could happen is that it doesn't work as you would need it to, and you return it for a refund.


Herb's right. At a minimum, I think it's best to get to get the best signal path you can afford. There is enough audible difference between the lowest cost unit to the units near the $100 cost to spring for the higher priced unit. Low cost USB mixers such as the Behringer Xenyx Q802USB model is the point in these lower cost USB mixers that begin to offer external features that are valuable to the home studio musician. Built in EQ, and compression don't require any CPU power and have zero latency. Aux send provides the ability to add additional external hardware effects without using any CPU power. There are enough line in's that multiple devices such as a keyboard or Voicelive can be attached and quickly rerouted.

In my opinion, these mixers will generate about the same white noise level as the low cost interfaces such as m-audio, Presonus and Focusrite. Even if the unit is is limited to 44.1/16 digital conversion, the quality of the preamp's and associated circuitry will yield a better digital signal due to the higher quality audio signal.

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