Hi all,
I thought I'd add my positive experience with the Sonosax M2D2, hopefully to add some confidence to those folk who might be slightly apprehensive to make the jump.
I'm coming from a slightly different and less sophisticated set-up than most members here; I'm a long time user of all-in-the-box audio interfaces, mainly consisting of RME and Apogee amongst others, and for context, I'm first and foremost a musician (rather than engineer) recording anything from sacred choral/organ music through to acoustic ensembles, rock/indie and electronic music - so..most of my spare cash goes on instruments!
My constraints have always been lack of mobility with my set-up; compromising recording quality on the move, and/or having loads of outboard gear which makes mobile recording a bit of a faff!
For a long time I have procrastinated over getting a new interface that will work with my iPad Pro, OSX and Windows machines, and at the same time, also wanting to get significantly better microphone preamp. I had resigned myself to the usual stable of products, all of which didn't really cut it for me and presented lots of compromises around it being truly mobile at the sound quality I was looking for (and also, without having to sell a kidney to pay for it).
So...enter the Sonosax SXM2D2+. What can I say other than Wow! It seems to have everything:
- truly amazing mic preamps (I literally cannot get my head around how good they make my modest mic selection sound). AND...there are 2 of them!!
- It runs off Lithium-Ion vape batteries - why don't more manufacturers do this? It's brilliant and makes perfect sense. I've always felt trying to draw power for 48v from a battery powered host device whilst working mobile is just robbing Peter to pay Paul. This thing runs for ages from 1 interchangable battery (in fact, you can swap out the battery without the device turning off!)
- It's USB C and class compliant - no messing with lots of adaptors, USB C to USB C straight into ipad/phone or computer.
- I can use SPDIF through the AES input to record my keyboards etc (love that i can do this!).
- The internal routing of the Sonosax is really flexible, and allows easy routing in the box. Need to capture something from another app? No problem, just set the routing in the M2D2 and away you go - I literally feel I can use this device for any application.
- The menus of the M2D2 are logical and easy to get around. After an hour or so messing around with I had no problems doing everything i needed to with ease.
-TA3 connectors - for me, having these makes perfect sense. I bought some adaptors and barely notice they are there. I'd pick this over having a bus-powered device any day of the week. The M2D2 has a very small footprint and when you get your hands on it the TA3 connections with adaptors for me, is preferable to XLR and a bigger device.
- No MIDI - I initially felt this might be a constraint for my needs but quickly overcame this. I use a Nektar Panorama P6 as a controller and as this is class compliant I can plug this straight into my iPad (via a USB hub) and power from a small battery pack on the move. For non-class compliant MIDI devices, a simple MIDI to USB adaptor works fine for my needs - job done
- Unbalanced outs - I understand that this might be an issue for some, but for me works fine with my ADAM A7's.
Latency - I thought this would definitely be where the device fell down, but how wrong I was. I am currently using this with my old Windows machine running a number of large orchestral sample libraries (such as Spitfire Audio, ProjectSAM etc). I honestly couldn't tell much difference from my RME interface - latency is incredibly low, and as a fairly accomplished pianist I am very aware of how annoying latency can be. I've checked this several times and with monitoring when recording from microphones also, all works flawlessly (still can't get my head around how Sonosax has achieved this).
Suffice to say...my other audio interfaces are now gathering dust!
It has to be said that this device is a steal for the price. A top quality audio interface and world class microphone pres for less than £1300, that works with everything from a phone to a Windows machine. It is a no brainer...and for me, wipes the floor with any other similar device I can think of on the market.