Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 4th Gen - USB Audio Interface Review (Air Mode, Clip Safe and Auto Gain) 

Finally the one and only authoritative review of this device. Thanks, Julian 🤘

wieder mal ein sehr ausführliches und gut verständliches review👍Julian Krause steht für Qualität! ♥und glückwunsch zu den 100k abos 🥳

Thank you for your videos. The detail you go in was monumentally useful for deciding what best fit my use case. I knew my requirements but was struggling to find the information I needed and your videos had everything.

Thanks so much Julian much appreciated your videos.thanks for bringing it up mate.

Thank you for another great video. I still appreciate the irony around the Kensington "locking point." It is indeed a very high security connection, and I feel that it really makes the world a better and much safer place.

Thanks for this very accurate and comprehensive summary! It really helped a lot. Hats off!

I'd love to see how these modern interfaces stack up against some of the older stuff that's out there. We tend to accept new products at face value, but realistically things like low latency were worked out a really long time ago, 20 years ago with RME's Hammerfall and even in the late 2000s with DICE II Firewire interfaces from Focusrite, Presonus, etc. How are manufacturers pushing the envelope these days, particularly in the budget space that JK likes to feature most often?

Geil! You are the best in interface review world man! Thanks!

I AM EARLY TO A JULIAN KRAUSE VIDEO! WOOOOOOOOOO!

Awesome review. Love the scientific detail

Currently have a Motu M2 but would like an interface with the mic inputs on the back. This one looked so promising up until the ever disappointing headphone output. Bummer.

Danke fürs Video!❤ Ich bin gespannt😮

Thank you Julian

It's about time someone showed us some specs. I get tired of just hearing how great something sounds, or about some feature. Give me the technical data.

Danke!

Great Stuff! Would you personaly pick the 2i2 4th or the Motu m2?

Thank you for another very thorough and comprehensive review!!! I'll stick with my 3rd Gen 2i2.

If I had to buy an Audio interface I‘d watch your test reports about interfaces in any case! 👍🏻💪🏻

Great review Julian. What mic do you use to record your videos?

Thanks for the review. Too bad that, as I use 48Ω headphones, my return window is closed. Just a question, could you review the AXE I/O from IK Multimedia? I would be very intersting in having your feedback on it. It is marketed as an audio interface for guitarists, but is a fully capable interface! Unfortunately, I've never read a serious and objective review of this card.

Hey Julian, Thank you for the video as i would like to ask you what is the best portable sound card that you recommend as i am a voice over artist so i am going to use it just for voice over work. Thank you

hi, thanks for your great detailed reviews. how would you compare the scarlett 2i1 4th gen to the clarett 2 pre mk1 ? greets Karl

Hi Julian, You're my source for all insights regarding interfaces. When you have time, can you review the Solo Gen 4?

Hey Julian, thanks for the content. I have a suggestion, would you be willing to test mixer/interface like the Tascam 12 or others?

Great review, thank you! The round trip latency seems to be higher on the 4th gen compared to the 3rd gen. In your review of the 2i2 3rd gen the RTL was 3.5 ms at 48Khz@16 samples. It seems that at the same settings 2i2 4th gen has RTL of 5.1ms. The 3rd gen has a setting "Safe Mode" in the "Latency information" section of the Device Settings and it is adding 1ms when enabled. Is there a similar setting in the 4th gen and when you measured the 3rd gen was this setting on or off? I have Solo gen3 and 8i6 gen3 and I am thinking about getting the 2i2 4gen, but the higher latency is something I don't like as I am using these interfaces with my guitar and every ms matters.

Hey thanks! Great video on the unit. Im doing research on mic pre coloration. I'm trying to find something incredibly "sterile" and i think the focusrite is probably the least common denominator for a lot of things. Going to need to pick one of these up.

Thanx! Got the 2i2 today and i am happy about how much you get in this days compare to 10 years ago. The soundcard sounds good.

RU-vidrs & Podcasters would love a SYSTEM AUDIO BUTTON. I never use air mode. That's what EQ's and saturators are for. So you could get rid of this button. And a Direct Monitoring gain knob would rock! Most of us don't want to deal with any latency. We're happy with hearing exactly what we put in during our overdubs because we do most things in post anyway.

in love with the term "fetclouder"

Hi Julian, great videos. What do you recommend between iD4 MKII, Solid State Logic SSL 2, Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (4th gen.)? I have Shure SRH1540 headphones (46 ohms). I have Windows 11. Thank you.

at 6:52, you have the Rode AI-1 at the bottom of "maximum gain of mic input chart", is this before or after the 1.3.1 firmware update where they increased the gain of the microphone input? I had to check here since this is your latest video.

can U compare/consider Rodecaster DUO or Rode Streamer X to be used as an audio interface in a an Audio Studio Specially considering the Pre-amps performance Thankyou

I would like to know if theres any chip processor wich works better than others in terms of DAC or ADC, because the improvements of chips are uncomprensioble for most of us, can you do a review of those dear Julian?

Trying to fix what's not broken always ends up being a mistake.

I want the inputs on the sides.

Great video! Would love a review on the Apollo Solo and Twin since they are so popular.

i was hoping to find the solo review gen 4 but havent seen it yet. since i could save some money since i dont need more than one input for the setup

hey man you did good job i hop you doing good man have a good day

What happens if you connect an unbalanced output (specifically a 3 pole connector such as trs with a different signal on the left and right channel) into a balanced input? How do audio interfaces handle such cases? Thanks

Can you do the same level of testing you do for these audio interfaces but with the Samsung s23 ultra? I wanna see a motu m2 vs s23 ultra mic comparision. Specially using the dolby recoding app I get some amazing stuff.

What would be the best audio interface and headphone combo for mixing, recording?

So recently I noticed that there was a significant amount of noise on the Hi z input of my audio interface . It is significant enough to cause some harsh frequencies when you run a di through amp sims. It would be nice if you compared some di tracks recorded with each interface you have because although Neural Dsp plugins come with a noise gate this simply removes the noise when you're not hitting the strings . The impedance is different on every interface and it would be cool to hear some feedback from guitarists on how the interface hi z responds compared to playing with a real amp .

Well, I just bought a second Gen3, and after watching this, I'll stick the the two Gen3's I have.

Hi Julian, very informative review as always, thanks! Could you please disclose which headphones have been measured in the "controversial change subchapter"? :)

Seen the 4i4 and now the 2i2, great job on both. I'm still pretty sold on the MOTU. Question though, Is there no difference in quality between the MOTU M2 and M4? Just curious because only the M2 was ever reviewed by you.

Hi, I need a bit of help to decide, I will use the interface with studio speakers (JBL LSR 305 + sub) to listen to music and for electric guitar with amp sim (NAM or something like bias) I am among 2i2 4th gen, Audient iD14 MKII or iD4 MKII, So I only care about the quality of guitar input and audio outputs, which characteristics should I focus on? Line input performance, main output performance and round trip latency right? Thanks in advance!

Curious if you think the 4th gen is better than SSL2 ? Thanks

11:16 what do the color lines mean? What is those headphones impedance ?

What was the impedance of the headphones you used in your test?

Solo Review Please!

I was going to buy the 2i2 but with the headphones that I use ath m40x (32 ohms) glad I didn't! As always thanks for your excellent and precise review

I know nothing about audio interfaces. I would want to record with my pedals. Is this something you can connect them to for recording? If not, what would I need?

Can you stell us what headphones you used and which ones were "heavily impacted"? Thx

"Eye candy" or not, those meters are much nicer than, say, three green LEDs with a yellow and red one. 👍

What did you mean by the sm7b for noise performance comment?

How can headphone output noise level at minimum gain be _lower_ than at 1 Vrms nominal? The 2i2 gen4 is the second interface to do that. If this is real, that could be a sign of power supply noise being coupled into the volume pot ground return, which can happen with shared power/ground returns (especially if voltage rail impedance is low and there is a substantial amount of decoupling capacitance - you basically get a voltage divider consisting of rail Z + decoupling C / return R). Thankfully it's all at a very low level. Note how the headphone amp on the 2i2 gen4 is a traditional job with an analog volume pot while the 4i4 out clearly is digitally controlled. What's up with the headphone out 50 Hz distortion? It doesn't really seem to be load-dependent, so is there an internal stage with smallish ceramic coupling caps or something? It's clear that if you want the cleanest line-in for measurements, you'll want the 4i4 instead (much like MOTU M2 vs. M4). The 2i2 is clearly built to a price. The Solo should be even more so.

what is the word for the headphones characteristic? high impeance? mp’s?

Do you suggest turning off safe mode?

Thanks for the review and the no nonsense approach of your videos. This is perhaps a noob question. I'm a drummer first and guitarist second, but after spontaneously recording some shouts for a song at my friend's studio, I was hooked on the idea of trying out more of this vocal stuff. Thanks to Cyberweek happening, Thomann right now offers the 2i2 Studio 3rd Gen set with a CM25 MkIII condenser mic (and headphones) for about € 184 and the same set with the 4th Gen for € 290. Would my modest home recording justify spending $100 more for the 4th Gen, or would buying the 3rd Gen set be still quite sufficient? May be obvious but I also don't know if that Mic is any good as well. Thanks in advance. (hätte ja auch auf Deutsch fragen können, aber dann antworten vielleicht mehr Leute. :D )

HI Julian, If we use an external preamp, does the dynamic range follow the external preamp?

Where did the jolly outro music gooo

Any plans still to review the 4th gen Scarlett Solo? Curious on the headphone output impedance on that one.

why is individual phantom a concern? If you have a mic that doesn't require phantom, it's just ignored, there is no downside. Or am I missing something?

The 4i4 gen 4 can control the XLR phantom power per channel

quick question, for Voice over and live stream would the Connect 6 be the best option?

How about Scarlett Solo 4th gen? Is it having the same specs ?

I'm connecting the Sm7DB and the SE Electronics V7 for a podcast... Would turning on the 48V of Phantom Power hurt the SE electronics mic? I need it to have a lower noise flower for my sm7db by activating the +18DB on the mic

Which is better LEWITT CONNECT 6 or Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 4th Gen for condenser microphone and vocals singing?

We’d love to see an evo 16 review. So curious how it sounds compared to the iD line. Thanks!

I thought you said in your interface video comparison that the focusrite scarlett 3rd gen was bad with lower impedance headphones and the sweet spot has 80 ohms but now you say that the 3rd gen was good with lower impedance headphones ?? .-.

Waiting for you to review the Black Lion Audio Revolution 6x6.

It's not an elegant fix, but having a small profile headphone amp with high input impedance and low output impedance connected to the HP output of the interface will fix the frequency response issue if the external amp is well designed and the gain of both amp and interface are dialed in to limit noise and clipping

Not sure why they dont provide a usb c to usb c cable.

Hey Julian, I want to connect Neumann KDH-30 Headphones to this soundcard. Do you think the output for this headphones is loud enough and the sound is not inked since the Neumann are 120 Ohm headphones? Thanks in advance for your answer.

Sooo is this now better than the last clarett ? which came 2 years ago ? Or should I wait for a new clarett ?

Julian! Would you be reviewing the Focusrite Scarlett Solo 4th Gen? I want to wait for your review on it before I buy one. I'm concerned about the headphone impedance if it's high since I only have an ATH M50

REVIEW MOOER STEP 2, PLS!!

I have an AKG K240 MKII (55 ohm). Would the frecuency response affect my listening experience?

I just checked Sweetwater and the most expensive reference headphones $3k were 32 ohms. The others were too with some down to 24 ohms.

Guys, if any of you have bought it.. please reply this if you find any problems. I'm curious if this gen has any possible weird problematic thing that might not be detected at first but starts showing up after a while. Thank you 👍

This is almost the only audio interface I can use bc I need the xlr on the back

Buongiorno io uso hauptwerk della Milan Digital audio, software che simula organi da chiesa precaricati in rame suono per suono. Quando suono la tastiera midi collegata alla scheda audio usb il computer invia i suoni caricati alla scheda audio e poi ai monitor. Quale scheda con 4 output bilanciati ha minor latenza rispetto all uso che ne faccio? Premetto che la workstation in mio possesso è i5 13600k 64 GB RAM SSD M2. Grazie mille, spero tu possa aiutarmi

Can you do Topping E1x2 OTG?

Am i OCD or is there a woofiness on his voice at around 500-600 hz? Not specific to the featured interface, but on the entire vid?

I see you've taken to using the Steinberg UR22C as the worst case pre-amp noise examples again - not the much noisier Apogee, did someone have a quiet word with you?

Are you able to Test if you can play backing tracks from your 'Samsung Phone' VIA the USB C port, I do this on my Solo Gen 3 and it works perfectly out through my monitors, I just dont want to buy this product and realize that Focusrite have changed something.

Please, recommend me a good interface for 2 input, thank you.

replacing my clarett 2pre Thunderbolt to this scarlett 2i2 4th is stupid Idea only for vocal?

Is the DT 770 PRO (80 OHM) safe to use with this ?

It's not a bad idea to get something with more outputs. I used an extra pair to connect a relatively cheap headphone amp to my old 6i6 2nd gen and I'm happy I could do that, I'm no audiophile and even with my DT770s 80Ohm I hear a clear difference. The headphone output is somehow... lifeless, compared to the headphone amp.

Would u say it better then volt 2

Hi Julian. Thanks for your hard work and great videos. One main issue remains that those bare measurements say nothing about the 'musicality' of the DAWs. Take a guitar amplifier as en example. A tube amp may have considerably more distortion than a transistor based one, but may sound, subjectively, much better. Therefore I suggest you also include playback recordings of musical passages for each of the DAWs. I hope this makes sense. Niels

Output should be measured with a 10kΩ load, that is the standard in most of the proaudio equipment.

As somebody who records myself, I REALLY enjoy being able to set my input gain/settings from the computer/software. I'm, personally, willing to deal with some other...'shortcomings' for that QOL improvement. I monitor with Sony MDR 7560's (63 ohm). I notice a bump in the lower frequencies, but the headphones still expose everything in the mid-range, fine - which is what I use them for. I wish that I could plug 4 inputs in and just select which 2 (at anytime) to make active. That would save me some of un/plugging... But, I guess that's the point of splurging for the 4i4. Currently experiencing a crackling issue (just like I had with my previous 2nd gen). It's, perhaps, the fault of +my own settings+ or proximity to my PC so I hesitate to even mention it. (Happens about once a week and is remedied by un/replugging the USB cable for a second.) I'm willing to deal with it BUT an on/off button would be nice for this purpose. Air feature works great with my AT2020. Air+Presence works pretty good for my SMBeta58a. All in all, I'm happy with my purchase but A LOT of that has to do with being able set input gains from the software. EDIT: The crackling, more specifically, is usually remedied by "jostling" the usb at the back of the 2i2. So, I should prolly try a replacement usb-c cable...and it maybe has nothing to to do with the unit itself.

Supposedly 48v will not damage a dynamic mic so is it really necessary to have 2 switches for the inputs?

Whats the name of that monitor?

I recently bought the 2i2 4th gen. Regards to the headphone jack... I have a splitter in it to spilt same signal to two separate headphones. One seems fine but the other one have a buzz noise when I increase headphone volume dial of interface to about 3'o clock. I tested the cables and everything. It seems to be the headphones themselves, having the buzz. It is cheap headphones as students of mine use it that is very young. The other one is a more expensive type. Can it then be the headphones as I heard you mentioned some info regards headphones.

Will you also test the Focusrite Scarlett Solo 4th Gen? I'd like to know, if this one has that high impedance as well. For me it's an absolute NoGo.

So can’t use my audio technical m50x ?

Hey mate. I have a 3rd gen 4i4 in perfect condition. Do I need to upgrade?