Hi... I'm aware of the specific features that each company offers, and RME offers a lot. But given the 2021 specs of the UCX II, I'm hesitant about buying it given the impressive dynamic range, noise floor and mic pres the current Audient's offer.

I'm wondering if anyone has compared the playback sound quality of the UCX II vs say... an Audient iD24?

I haven't used the UCX, but I did have the Babyface for about a month, and I now have an Audient iD14 that's just used for travel.
I personally like the Audient better than the Babyface when it comes to recorded sound, although the Babyface has more power for headphones (they're both capable).

I have ID44mkII and UFXII sat by each other.

RME shades it for me, just seems more consistent in terms of sound.

In fact I'm beginning to use the RME as my reference compared to lots of "better" converters I own, due to its endless neutrality.

Nothing wrong with the Audient and use that a lot too.

I sold my UCX II a few months ago. Nothing special in ad/da and the lack of second headphone out made it unusable to me.Defintiely not worth the price tag these days.
UFX units on a different league,so you cant compare.
Having used an id44mkii and the id24 before, I'd say defitely go for an Audient. I actually sold my id24 to get the UCX II and it wasnt worth it imho.
But I have to say I recently bought a Scarlett 16i16 4th gen for a smaller setup and I cant believe how good this thing sounds. My only grief is that you only have gain control in the 1/2 ins, for the remaining you have to use your daws utility gain for any kind of work. But I'll soon pair it with the new Ferrofish Pulse 8 thing for a mighty portable setup.

P.

Hey thanks... yeah it looks like the "UFX" versions are more on par with the Audient specs. The draw for RME is "Room EQ" in Total Mix. I wish other manufacturers include this.

Great info... thanks! Exactly what I'm looking for.

Recently moved from an iD44 to UCXII.

The ID series is incredible bang for the buck, and there was nothing really wrong with it for my purposes (other than being the previous generation which lacked digital loopback, which from my understanding is a non issue with the latest gen).

The RME is just a better fit for how my studio has recently expanded and has the right I/O to carry me into the next decade +. TotalMix is great - it’s a bit more sophisticated & flexible compared to iD mixer (which is still a great digital mixer). The RME feels a touch quieter and more tonally neutral. RME’s hardware build quality also feels a notch better compared to the Audient. The most surprising improvement though has been the ability to use the ARC USB controller. It’s been a complete gamechanger for my workflow, not having to reach for the interface to make various monitoring and interface adjustments. Just like any computer based audio engineer has one hand parked right next to the mouse, it’s become the same thing with the ARC.

TLDR - For me the RME was the best long term play between the I/O options, small but noticeable overall quality improvements, and the ARC controller. Hard to go wrong with the iD series though.

I have an RME UCXII and used to have an Audient iD14 until I sold it.

IME, the Audient stuff sounds really good for the money, but I couldn't get it to work reliably at buffers lower than 512. At the time their software was a bit buggy, too.

That was like 6-9 years ago, though.

The RME sounds great and has been very solid for two years and counting. TotalMix window occasionally freezes when the computer wakes from sleep mode, but a 'Force Quit' and reopen takes care of that and the audio interface is not affected. Very happy with it.