Scarlett 2i2 4th Gen

Scarlett 2i2 4th Gen USB - I love it. I am using a long line of multiple 2i2 devices from Gen 1, Gen 2, Gen 3 for years. I am happy with all of them. Very good built quality, plain, low noise, low distortion. They all meet manufacturer specifications. No inflated claims like some manufacturers do. Each model had some tiny glitches that did not affect my experience. So my expectations are high on 4th Gen. A box arrived quickly. I opened it and realized a box has no protecting layer to soften shocks, blows during transportation. Just over box inside of almost identical, only slightly larger box! This experience was not a good welcome to me. I believe such packaging of any electronics reduces product reliability. Didn't you see how sometimes drivers drop packages on concrete floor? So I almost feel like getting used product, am I too sensitive about it? Alone in my opinion such product should have some shock absorbing layer of foam material or air bubbles sheet?After opening a box I see a piece of paper printed with miniature characters. Microscope could help... But no guidance here how to get the first steps. Only warnings in very many languages. As I would need all this, very high priority to manufacturer but not to me! I think this excellent product has new functions that a purchaser is not familiar with. It would be highly beneficial if a a small hard card size like 2-3 business cards shows briefly what happens when each of new controls used. OK, I can find it in pdf user manual, but I don't want to print user manual for one of 15 models audio interfaces I have. So I will work with audio recordings while scrolling through pdf file, at least till I am familiar with all this product offers. After such observations I wish to get to recording... And pdf file does not tell clearly up front that utility program is actually a driver. I have to spend time to learn it. This is the very first item to perform after purchase, but info is written among other content, not up front. I want to install utility program but no info provided if 2i2 Gen 4 should be connected or not, during installation. I learn here I should go to the internet, manufacturer' webpage and get information how to proceed. A suggestion is strong - identify yourself first! So you can get audio recording software. But I don't use the internet on sacred computers. I don't wish to be exposed to Spyware and threats from Microsoft like this one: You paid for our Office Suite, but we make it stop at our convenience under pretense we check if you are the correct user???? So I will to install a driver only, no suspicious activities and forced "updates", no spyware on my precious computer. How do I proceed considering above? I loaded needed file on another computer, copied it to one working with 2i2 Gen 4. It works fine that way. The utility is just sampling rate changing program combined with a driver, at least on my computer. Nothing else. A device works well, nothing wrong. I enjoy it from that moment. I don't need extra programs for musicians.Now most enjoyable part - distortion and noise testing. Both are excellent low, exactly as shown on specifications. I really enjoy low noise that is closer now to that of higher grade Clarett+ noise. Regarding distortion, Clarett+ has specs about 0.0003% while Scarlett 2i2 spec is around 0.001% for all generations 1, 2, 3, 4. Truly excellent product here, amazing performance for $200 and this product is far ahead of other USB audio interfaces I used before. Important to me is the fact it can work with no AC/DC power adapter. Through my career I experienced scenarios that noise reading was lowest if USB audio device was powered through USB cable. Then noise reading was even slightly better if power supply disconnected from laptop. The noise reading was consistently worse if given USB audio interface AND laptop used both AC/DC adapters. The difference could be a few dB but sometimes noise spikes were 10dB and more above noise floor, depending how clean was power line, individual wall outlets. I will check later 2i2 Gen 4 on that noise immunity and will update my review.In terms of reliability, all earlier Scarlett 2i2 I used full time worked a minimum of 5 years. If something wrong happened, it would be in the "abuse" category like frequent plugging, unplugging in, out cables with ESD damage maybe. Or connecting to multiple other devices powered with AC/DC adapters and no isolating transformers between. I am a laboratory user, not a musician, so different considerations, scenarios. Scarlett 2i2 Gen 4 is a great tool now for my audio experiments, audio test fixtures, audio signal measuring / analyzing setups.5 stars, but no 5+ due to less perfect packaging with less perfect protection against abuse in transit.

The preamps in this have almost 70 decibels a gain, which means this will not struggle to power the most demanding of dynamic microphones, the first air mode adds a little bit of EQ which can make a darker microphone sound amazing the second air mode I don't particularly like as it really cuts out the mid-range and boost the highest and the lows and kind of makes it sound hollow on my voiceThe software is very handy so you can control the gain from the knobs on the interface or right off the computer software which I think is awesomeThe preamps give me a much more transparent sound and other preamps for example other interfaces I own seem to color the sound a little bit but they add a little something they alter the Sun that would say the word this one just sounds very neutral and transparent like it's not changing the sound at allIf you check out the Danny lightning audio tech channel on YouTube you can see this compared to a couple of other units I also did a review video and something about the software so you might want to check that out as well but I'll tell you what can I so far I'm very happy with this I just wish they would add a monitor mix and it'd be nice if the software gave you a little number so you can see if you're at like zero 50 80 100 and so on on the game if you know what I'm saying those are the only two complaints but besides those two things and not really liking the second air mode the overall sound quality is very good and I'm very happy with the unit I mainly use a sure sm7b most of the time but I have quite a few different microphones, I used to always EQ my Acura estimate 7B but with this unit I just turn on the first air know that I don't feel like I need to do any further EQ adjustments which is awesome so yeah I really like this thing

Stay away from this product I've spent about 12 hours now behind my PC while being on the phone and screen sharing my pc with technical support. Their answer to me was try another computer. Windows 11 with everything updated drivers included.Either it does this or immediately locks my pc up with a hard restart