Completing the picture are a single USB port, a socket for the external 18V DC power supply, and the on/off switch. Digital I/O consists of coaxial S/PDIF in and out, MIDI in and out, and optical ADAT in and out, along with a BNC word-clock output (but no input). There are eight line outputs plus an additional pair of master outs which mirror outputs 1/2, but with hardware volume control. The rear panel is slightly more spartan than that of the Firestudio. At the extreme right is a stereo LED ladder meter that displays the levels reaching the main outputs, but input metering is restricted to red clip LEDs by each gain pot - there's not even a 'signal present' indication. A single LED lights solid blue when things are hunky dory and flashes red when any sort of sync problem is encountered. They are joined by a single headphone socket with its own volume control, plus a master volume and associated stereo LED ladder meter. The jack sockets serve as high-impedance instrument inputs on inputs 1/2, and line inputs on the other six channels. There are eight of these sockets, and all of them are combination XLR/jack affairs. For example, unlike most rivals, PreSonus put all their mic sockets on the front panel - and the Audiobox's front panel is exactly the same as that of the existing Firestudio, except painted blue. In many respects, the Audiobox takes ideas that are familiar from PreSonus's Firewire interfaces and ports them to the USB realm. PreSonus are thus shaking up this market with their new Audiobox 1818VSL, which significantly undercuts similarly featured rivals. It's only over the last year or so that a reasonably broad selection of multi-channel USB interfaces has become available, and they still tend to be noticeably more expensive than comparable Firewire boxes. PreSonus's USB 2 interface promises tight integration with their Studio One software at a competitive price.Īlthough it's been clear for a while that the Firewire standard is on the way out, manufacturers have taken their time to develop multi-channel audio interfaces that use other protocols.
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