CAD AudioCX2 2x2 USB Interface 24 Bit/96KHz

I was very hesitant to buy this interface because of other reviews stating some issues. (Bad USB cable, no driver support, static in recordings, etc.) But I'm happy to say that my unit had none of these issues. I think maybe CAD has updated the USB-C they ship with the interface. Other reviews have stated the USB included was cheaply made, but the one in my box was very clearly an aftermarket braided 6 foot cable with high quality shielding, definitely like a 15 dollar cable. So that alone was an awesome surprise.Overall everything is high quality. Metal housing, knobs are solid, Windows 10 immediately recognized the interface and everything is working perfectly. 10/10 great value!

Good simple and solid design and assembly, and sounds clean and natural.

For a budget interface, this provides decent microphone input for the price, especially if you can find it on sale. The specs are as advertised - 96 KHz, 24-bit, stereo - and the built-in preamp is good enough at max gain to drive a Shure SM48 audibly, only a small bit quieter at the default driver volume than the Behringer UM2 that I'd been using previously.However, this also comes with a few caveats: I recommend replacing the USB cable, and you'll need to use a different sound card if you need output at 96 KHz or without microphone passthrough.The included USB-C cable seems very cheaply made, with poor shielding and a strong plastic smell. When I tried recording with this cable on my MacBook via a USB-C hub, the recording showed noticeable signs of the infamous USB data line noise (a constant buzz at harmonics of 1 KHz) that many USB microphones and sound cards are prone to. After switching to a different cable with better shielding, this interference disappeared; see the attached screenshot for a comparison of the spectrogram before and after. It honestly surprises me that a mic interface would come packaged with such an interference-prone cable, but at least this is a fairly trivial and cheap fix.Less trivially, although the audio input on this interface is fine, there were some strange design decisions regarding its audio output. Although the interface supports a sampling rate of 96 KHz for input, it can only output audio at 48 KHz and below, which is an issue for tools like Audition that require input and output rates to match. There also does not appear to be any way to turn off mic monitoring, as far as I can tell - unlike other devices using a similar OEM design, there's no "off" setting on the monitor switch (only mono and stereo), nor is there any driver setting to disable the microphone passthrough or adjust its volume. Perhaps most bizarrely, I had expected that at least the line out jacks would provide clean output, but those jacks also have the microphone feed mixed in.

I bought this with the full intent of using it with a CAD E100Sx mic. I didn't know how long it would take to buy the mic but I knew that I would get it. 3 weeks later and poof super sale and now I have both. They are amazing and have made my recording life a million times better.The Connect II is no different from the Focusrite other than the price. It has 2 XLR connections and 2 plugs for instruments in the back. Yes, you can hook in your monitors/headphones. You have full gain control over the inputs.I live in a busy city and within 5 miles of a major airport, train station hub, Main Street, A highway, and an interstate, not to mention the taco joint in my backyard, the DQ, the tire repair place, and a gas station, along with a school across the street. Noise floor...lol your funny mine runs -42db on a slow day. With this set (connect II and e100Sx) I have a noise floor of under -20db on a busy day. Ooo, I can't wait to try it on the parade day next week. I bet it will cut the noise out with no issues.I bought this interface because it's recommended for my mic. But it's no different in quality or sound than a Focusrite. It is a fraction of the price but worth 10x more. Yes, buy this especially if you are using E100 mics.

Plug and play. Just works with no issues whatsoever

If you're an expert at this stuff, you can take my review for 4-5 stars. But as a neophyte, this thing was very confusing to use. Which is fine, I'm happy to dive in and learn how to use things, but documentation and user guides are not good. If you're familiar with this technology, I'm sure it's a great tool. Reasonably priced. I had a simple question and spent 3 hours trying to find an answer which I couldn't. Returning for something more user friendly.

I thought it had a 96khz output, which is important for me since I want the highest quality listening experience possible. But the unboxing actually led me to figuring out that my DAW allows recording from this interface while outputting audio to my amp, so the output quality is actually not an issue at all. It allows for live monitoring of the audio being sent to the device, which is good when I have audio routings going on that might cause feedback loops if I was trying to listen from the computer, since I love taking audio from my computer and putting it through multi-effect pedals and recording the results in Ableton. Overall a great purchase.