Audient iD14 MK2

Pros. Built quality: AI is very sturdy, has weight to it; as for electronics only time will show how it holds up. I've done quick recordings and was really happy with the quality. Bad comparison, but with M-Audio Fast Track I couldn't record live recordings (for example ukulele), because you had to set input gain pretty much to max to get reasonable recorded audio levels, which raised noise floor and in general had bad quality. This is not the case with Audient, recording live is hassle free, no need to set gain to 11, recorded audio is clear and in good quality. I have only instrument mic, so I haven't tested phantom power. Recording electric guitar trough DI was also great, no issues here; any issues I had here was from my old electric guitar electronics and not so great stock humbuckers. First I thought I will dislike one knob approach for setting monitors/headphones levels, but this design choice is well implemented. Audient iD14 powers my DT880 250 Ω really great (in terms of quantity; as for quality I'm not experienced to comment how good is analog to digital conversion) - you can go ridiculously loud, I would never listen at such high volume levels, I set volume about about halfway most of the times. I hadn't any problems with Audient software, mixer section works fine; I haven't looked deeper in this software capabilities. Having in mind what bad experience was with M-Audio (they stopped supporting AI drivers after year or two after I bought AI), I hope that Audient company will keep users with updated software and drivers years to come.

Cons. To be honest, I can't find any cons, maybe it's only minor inconveniences. Mic inputs could be on the front side, rather then back side, but if you have a studio were you can keep AI easily accessible or can leave mics connected, then this shouldn't cause any trouble. Some people prefer not to have AI with software, but personally I don't mind it. Audient comes with very short USB-C to USB-C cable, but if I understand correctly USB-C cables can't be longer then 1 or 2 meters, because it may not power AI well. My PC has only USB-A, so I had to buy cable separately. It sadly doesn't have power on/off switch, like Motu M2, that would be simple neat little feature. This also means, that if you switch computer off, AI lights stays lit illuminating room, which isn't ideal for bedroom producer.