greetings earthlings today i'm back with
a review of a brand new interface
iteration from audient that interface
being the id14
and if you are interested in this
interface it will cost you around 300.
like always i'll throw some links down
below and in the sake of full disclosure
i do want to let you know that audient
did send me the id14
and the id4 for the sake of doing this
review as well as a bunch of other tests
with that being said for this review i
have the rode
nt1 connected directly to the id14
my gain is set at around one o'clock i
am recording at 24 bit
48 kilohertz i will not do any kind of
post
but i may have to boost it a little bit
in post so check the doobly-doo to see
what i didly did
and now let's talk about what comes in
the box
what a shocker you are going to get the
audio interface
you're going to get a usbc to usbc
cable a quick start guide and you get
access to a bunch of software that
you're able to download off of their
website
then as far as the build quality of this
thing it feels
absolutely outstanding the entire
chassis is made out of metal
and feels extremely durable the dials
are very
tight and non-wobbly the switches have a
nice click to them when you flip them
over on and off they don't feel weak at
all the buttons have a nice tactile
click as well
so you know when you've pressed them and
the xlr combination jacks are not loose
at all either
nothing out of the ordinary next to walk
through the features of this interface
on the top you will find input 1 and 2
gain controls
you will also find independent 48 volts
phantom power
on off switches next to that you will
find a meter ranging from negative 36 db
all the way up to 0db which will show
you the level of the headphones or
speakers that you're adjusting
as well as your playback level beneath
that you will find a usb
light letting you know that you're
plugged in and getting sufficient power
then on the bottom right of the
interface you will find three buttons
the first one being a button to select
the monitors and allow you to adjust the
level for the monitors
on the right hand side you will find a
headphone button to allow you to adjust
the level of the headphones and in the
center
it has the id button which you're able
to assign
to do specific functions from the
software
if you want to do anything like that but
if you don't you can just use this to
scroll around
on your computer then above that you
have the massive volume control which
you will use to control the headphone
and the monitor levels and it also is a
massive button
so if you push this what i found is it
mutes the computer playback
on the front of the interface you will
find a single high z quarter inch
input which does allow you to plug an
instrument directly into this we'll test
that a little bit later
and this also takes over the xlr port in
the
rear of the interface meaning you cannot
run a mic into channel one and an
instrument into this high z input as
well
you just need to pick one or the other
and then on the other side of the front
you will find
a quarter inch and eighth inch headphone
jack for computer playback
and zero latency monitoring then on the
rear of the interface you will find
the usbc port for data transfer and
power
that is right this is a bus powered
interface you will then find an optical
input for adat or spdif expansion
so you are able to add up to eight
additional external preamp channels to
this
if your external preamp allows for that
then you'll find four balanced quarter
inch
outputs so you can run a set of monitors
as well as run to a set of headphone
amplifiers if you want
and lastly you will find two xlr
combination jacks for mic
or line level inputs and if it matters
to you at all this interface
is made in china then as far as the
specs
this interface records up to 24 bit 96
kilohertz
the preamps have a gain range of 58 db
an ein of negative 129 dba
a signal-to-noise ratio of 101 dba
48 volts of phantom power and here are
the output specs for this interface
if you're interested and i do want to
mention that the big
upgrade from gen 1 to gen 2 for the id14
really appears to be the a to d and d to
a converter
the a to d converter got a 5 db dynamic
range improvement
and the d to a converter got a 9 db
dynamic range improvement so quite a big
improvement over the prior gen
then very briefly i want to talk about
the main differences between the id4
mark
ii and the id 14 mark ii the most
obvious
difference is going to be the inputs and
outputs
the id4 has only one xlr combination for
a mic
line level input and then you have one
quarter inch hi-z input for an
instrument
on the id4 you only have one set of
balanced monitor
outputs but on the id14 you have two
sets
of balanced outputs both interfaces do
have the quarter inch
and eighth inch headphone jack also as
you can see the id14 has
speaker and headphone selection lights
the id4
only has one speaker light so you will
only be able to adjust the output
together you won't have individual mixes
or output levels for the headphones and
the monitors
another very big difference that i think
some folks actually think of as a pro
for the id4
is it does not have the software console
to create a mix
it just has this single monitor mix dial
to mix between computer playback and
zero latency monitoring
so if you are looking for that physical
dial the id4 is going to be the one for
you but if you want more granular
digital control the id14 will offer that
and lastly you have a much better and
much more granular meter on the id14
over the id4 next like always in order
to really test out the preamps i have
the sm7b
connected directly to the interface i
have my gains set at around four o'clock
and i'm hitting around negative nine
to negative six db so a very healthy
level when i get a little bit louder
very good level there i'll be quiet so
you can hear the noise that's generated
at this gain setting
and there you go perfectly capable of
driving the sm7b
i'll even increase it to 100 and now the
gain is set to 100 percent
i will not do any kind of boosting and
post
just so you can hear that you can 100
percent
drive this 7b with this interface
i'm hitting around negative 6 to
negative 3 db
very risky very little headroom if i get
excited
i hit 0db and clip but i just wanted to
demonstrate
what it sounds like 100 percent on the
gain dial
without any boosting or anything in post
there you go next i want to test out the
id14's preamp noise performance
i'm going to throw on an xlr connector
with 150 ohm resistor
and slowly increase the gain so you can
hear what kind of noise
the preamps generate
then when we look at latency with the
sample rate set at 48 kilohertz
and an io buffer size of 64 samples
we have a nine millisecond round trip
latency or four and a half milliseconds
output
when we jump up to 128 samples we have
11 and a half
milliseconds round trip or five and a
half milliseconds output
and when we jump up to 256 samples we
have a 17 milliseconds round trip
or eight and a half milliseconds output
then when we bump our sample rate to 96
kilohertz and the
i o buffer is at 64 samples we have a
seven and a half millisecond round trip
or 3.7 milliseconds output
increasing to 128 samples we have a 9
millisecond round trip
or 4.3 millisecond output and finally
increasing to 256
we have 11 and a half milliseconds round
trip or about 6 milliseconds of an
output latency
next i'm going to go ahead and plug my
electric guitar and my electric bass
directly into this thing so you can hear
the raw di
input then i will switch back and forth
between the raw
as well as an amp simulator version and
then i will
create a full mix with all di
amp simed guitars and bases
[Music]
do
[Music]
so
[Music]
next i want to address a question i know
i will get
can it drive difficult to drive
headphones
in my experience it's perfectly capable
of even driving
the sennheiser hd 650s which are
300 ohms and fairly difficult to drive
drives them with no problem able to get
a perfectly listenable level and a clean
signal as well now here is a very quick
look at
the id software that you use to mix your
audio for the id14
i am not going to be doing a huge
massive deep dive on this thing
just a quick rundown you are obviously
going to have
faders for your mic inputs mic 1 and
2. this is going to be what you hear in
the
headphones as well as the monitor
outputs you are also able to make some
minor adjustments here
one being a 10db boost let me engage
that
and now the microphone should be 10 db
louder and i think i just clipped but
there you go you're also able to invert
the phase if you have any phase issues
there
then as far as the computer playback
mine is running through
daw one and two if i hit play on some
music
you can see that showing up on the
meters you cannot hear it
i'm not recording that i'm not capturing
it but you do have the ability to mix
the zero latency monitoring with the mic
channels
and at the computer playback with the
daw one and two three four five six
and you're also able to create a couple
of different cue mixes
click on the cue mix that you want to
adjust and then you are able to
create the mix that you want to send out
to
that qmix i think that is pretty much
all that i wanted to cover
with this quick run-through of the id
software
i wanted to make it clear that you do
need to download and open this software
in order to actually make the mix
between zero latency
and computer playback but also i do want
to point out that you do
have access to a loopback setting for
this interface
you can select one of the outputs for
loopback
so you are able to capture your computer
playback for a stream
or for recording however the loopback
source
is not going to be a mix minus to my
knowledge
so if you are using it for a podcast
keep that in mind
okay it is no secret that i loved the
original audient id4
i thought this thing was awesome and the
mark ii versions of their id series
interfaces
are just better they're improved how
could i not like them
but first up let's talk about the pros
and the first pro
is the preamps they are insane i could
look at specs
all day long but the moment that i
measure them throw in
that 150 ohm resistor and then look at
the
measurement and see a flat uniform
silence it's a beautiful beautiful thing
and i am always blown away
on top of that it has plenty of gain to
drive the sm-7b
and i would say it has plenty of gain to
drive the sm-7b
cleanly to the point where i do not
think that you would need a fet head or
a cloud lifter or anything like that
next i know i sound like a broken record
because i talk about this in every
audient review
the di input on their interfaces is
absolutely insane sounding and i think
it sounds
probably one of the best of any
interfaces that i've tried
the expandability of the id14 is also
amazing at this price point you don't
typically see the adat
or spdif expansion capabilities and
having that
really makes this something that you can
grow with as opposed to just getting
stuck with
two inputs and then having to upgrade to
a different interface down the line
also they did not have to do it but i
think it is a very nice touch to see the
second
set of balanced quarter inch outputs
just makes it easier
to run to more headphones or anything
like that
the latency on this thing very workable
i had no
issues running amp sims and the
headphone
output is perfectly capable of driving
difficult to drive headphones
like the 650s then as far as cons
there's really nothing that sticks out
to me that i dislike about this
interface
it just works and it does everything i
need it to do
but i do know that some folks are going
to hate having to have that software on
their computer
they would prefer just having a physical
mix dial for
computer playback and zero latency
monitoring but that's a lose-lose
because
50 of people are going to want the
software to get more granular control
the other 50 percent or maybe even less
will want that physical dial
so they don't have to download anything
another thing that i noticed
it's less of a con and more of an fyi
i was not able to get this to play
nicely with discord
i had to ultimately create a new
aggregate device
using loopback to route my microphone
input to discord and get it to function
properly
so if you're buying the id14 for discord
keep in mind you may have to do some
fancy digital routing to get your mic
there
and to wrap up what i recommend the
audient id
for that's difficult i mean of course i
would recommend it but
there are questions that ought be
answered that's why it's difficult
the reason i'm saying it's difficult is
because around the 300
price point you have some killer options
with the mo 2 m2
and the ssl 2 plus now if you do need
the adat and spdif expansion id14
absolutely i recommend it if you want
some more
color to your recording if you want some
ssl
flavor and if you need midi io
ssl 2 plus would be the route i would go
or if you want the fancier display if
you want the better meters
you want the midi io then
the mo 2 m2 would be the route that i go
with
really any of these would be great they
all have amazing preamps they all have
amazing features
the id14 just stands out with that
expansion
if that is something that you need okay
i think that's all that i have for you
today
i would love to hear from you in the
comments down below what do you think of
the id14
mark ii let me know down below if you
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i will talk to you all later thanks for
watching thanks for listening
bye