Gear Hunter

MOTU 1248

Description

The 1248 offers a lot of interface for the money, not to mention MOTU’s take on networked audio.

Standards are a good thing, it’s said, which is why we need lots of them. The old joke was never so true as in the field of networked audio. Everyone agrees that sending music down Cat5 cables is the future; but until the future arrives, the present looks like a bit of a mess. If you dig around on Wikipedia, you’ll find a table entitled ‘Comparison of audio network protocols’ which lists no fewer than 18 different ways of transmitting audio from A to B, C or D. Not all of these are still viable options, by any means, but the likes of Dante, Ravenna, Aviom, Digigrid and AVB all have powerful adherents in high-end live-sound circles. Some of them are making headway in the project-studio market too, thanks in part to a new breed of audio interface that combines local and networked I/O and connects to a host computer using familiar USB or Thunderbolt cables.

Focusrite’s take on this concept, reviewed in the May issue of SOS, is the Red 4Pre: a premium 1U Thunderbolt interface which has a versatile selection of analogue I/O on board, plus the capacity to be expanded locally using ADAT and S/PDIF, or over Ethernet using Dante-compatible remote preamps, mixers, headphone amps and so forth. However, the Red 4Pre was not the first audio interface to offer this sort of blend of features. That honour probably goes to the subject of this review, the 1248 from Mark Of The Unicorn.