Sono : Excellent preamp/interface capable of standalone operation, but with limitations

As a general purpose guitar preamp, DI and recording tool, it's the one to beat. The low-latency power-amp and speaker sim is a great bonus. and it works extremely well. As a bonus. the Sono works as an untethered, standalone preamp and DI.

This is my second Audient interface. I also use the more modest iD4 which, with its awesome sounding jfet input stage, I also highly recommend for electric guitarists. As with the the iD4, the Sono is class-compliant USB interface, and setting-up and getting started doesn't get any easier.

Under-the-hood, however, the Sono has routing possibilities and editable settings that are accessible only via your Mac or PC. The amp/speaker sim settings are retained on power-down, and available in standalone mode. I've used the two-note's software previously on the EP for The Vortex so the UI feels familiar. The sim is mono, fwiw, but I don't really think that's a serious flaw, just something to be mindful of (you can record the dry DI sound in addition to the sim'd output, so you can re-amp later if you need).

The only real downsides compared to other Audient interfaces is that the metering is crude by comparison, there are no port labels on the top edge of the enclosure, it only has one headphone jack, and there is no loopback feature. I'm also not 100% convinced about the tone controls, but that's my personal taste (they don't feel to me like a blackface tonestack). Plus I might prefer the iD4's jfet input stage in comparison to the Sono's 12AX7 preamp, but that's a hair's difference.

For the guitarist who wants to get your sound during tracking with minimum fuss, or on-the-road, it may be the best thing out there.