Audio interface update:
MOTU M2 arrived today. Excellent build quality. Everything solid and tight. Backlit LCD screen is super easy to read, although missing numeric level indicators.
Sound quality is outstanding. Lowest-noise source ever to my KRK monitors, and HP and has plenty of juice to drive my Senn HD650s loudly and cleanly.
If you are looking for an external audio interface, just buy this. Trust me, I've tried lots of them. This is the way.
@voltronic I use an audioquest dragonfly red and some alesis srp100 headphones (budget but they sound amazing)
@soulasassin
I've heard good things about those Dragonfly units. For me, I need an external interface for recording with phantom-powered condensers, balanced outputs for my monitors, and a good headphone amp.
Previously, I had to switch between two output devices when checking mixes between monitors and headphones, because my Focusrite interface couldn't properly drive my headphones.
Now, I have one audio device that does it all, and I'm a happy camper.
@voltronic I picked the AQ because I literally only need it to drive a pair of speakers or headphones. The bulk of my collection is in 24bit flac so onboard audio was never going to cut it.
@soulasassin
Yeah that's what most of my music is also. I also do a lot of recording that tends to need EQ and /or a trip through iZotope RX Spectral Denoise, so I don't trust onboard audio for that either.
Not only that, but getting your analog audio I/O away from all the stuff going on inside a PC case is always a good idea.
@voltronic I'm just arsey about my music sounding good 🙂