M4 : Great U.S quality built

At this price range it's hard to beat the M4, especially for a device coming from an U.S. manufacturer (this is not a Made in China product!).

My full review can be read here: >

Pros:

- 60dB of gain is more than enough, even the SM7B should work fine;

- pre-amp noise is quite low, maybe not as low as the Clarett 2Pre, but definitely not something that can be heard with ease;

- the ESS DAC chip really shines, so who needs a rather cheap audio interface without noise on its outputs and with a very low THD then this should be the one;

- the OLED VU-meters are a great addition here, probably the only interface adding such VU-meters on this price range;

- case and all knobs are metallic/aluminum, so quite nice to touch;

- all input gain & output volume is digitally controlled, this means there's perfect channel matching;

- no pops in the speakers when powering ON/OFF the interface;

- power button on the back;

- needs no external power supply, it just relies on computer USB power (tested on Win and MacOS and works flawless);

- powerful dedicated headphones amplifier (works even with AKG K701);

- full-scale TRS input plugs that bypasses the gain controls (directly connected to ADC).

- loopback virtual interfaces (made by the Windows drivers) really helps when need to record what you're listening to your computer (could be anything from a Whatsup call to listening music or to audio dubbing a video recording).

Cons:

- VU-meters are a bit slow, but the upper red light peaks are helping a lot when clipping occurs;

- 48V buttons are too close to the XLR mic plugs, when unplugging the mics I tend to press the 48V buttons with my big rounded fingers.