Digidesign MBox Audio Interface (Macintosh and Windows)

by Digidesign

Product Features

• 2-channel USB audio peripheral
• two Focusrite mic preamps, 24-bit stereo S/PDIF digital I/O, 2- 1/4" TRS inserts, & a headphone output

Product Details

• Item Weight: 3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• ASIN: B0002EJV72
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,482 in Musical Instruments (See Top 100 in Musical Instruments)
  • #41 in Musical Instruments > Recording Equipment > Computer Recording > Audio Interfaces

Product Description

Mbox is a 2-channel USB audio peripheral characterized by Digidesign and Focusrite performance, specifically engineered to offer you precision sound in a very small, very portable package. Featuring acclaimed Focusrite mic pre amps, Mbox couples high-quality components with a 24-bit input-to-output signal path to guarantee the fidelity of your sound throughout the production chain.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars solid package, awful customer service, compatibility issues, February 7, 2005

By 

Papi (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Digidesign MBox Audio Interface (Macintosh and Windows)

I never got to use this package, but it looks pretty solid. PLEASE check this page before you buy Digidesign's Mbox package:

http://digidesign.com/compato/xp/mbox/

I tried installing on a brand-new Dell desktop with 512MB RAM, twin SATA 160GB hard drives, and a 2.8 Ghz processor. It didn't work. The above-referenced page (which I wish someone had told me about before the purchase) informed me of a chipset compatibility issue which effectively makes the entire package useless on my computer. Digidesign's customer service is WORSE than you've heard; I sent them numerous e-mails asking if there was an update coming that would fix the problem, and I NEVER heard back from them. So I have no idea when or if there's a fix in the works.

For what it's worth, I sold the Mbox and bought Cubase SE and a PreSonus Firebox, and am very happy with my setup (but it was more expensive than the Mbox package). So, go ahead and purchase this one, just make sure your equipment will work with it first!

Oh yes, one other thing: someone somewhere complained about ProTools needing 2 hard drives to function properly... don't blame ProTools; any decent recording package is going to want a separate drive for data.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Works pretty flawlessly, September 13, 2004

By 

MC Moxie "DJ" (Miami, Florida USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Digidesign MBox Audio Interface (Macintosh and Windows)

This box is sweeet! I've been doing digital and audio musicmaking for about 12 years, I used to work exclusively in analog (4-track Tascams). I finally broke down and got this to use on my pc laptop. This thing allows me to hook up my old XLR Shure mics, my electric guitar and just about anything else I want.

The interface is idiotproof, I was hesitant about getting into the whole digital thang, but now I'm sold. I can take this baby, my laptop (PC), my guitar and a microphone and I've got my own recording studio. It comes with Protools, which is pretty good, although I prefer to work in Audition . . .( I used to be a CoolEdit fiend). The thing I like about this is it's portability. It's 1 lb if that, and I've brought it all around the country doing shows . . . I'm setup in less than 30 seconds. Awesome.

For the amount of circuitry that must be in this thing, I've never had any problems. It's well worth the money.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pres don't have much headroom, but OK for pop recording, February 24, 2005

By 

partimento (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Digidesign MBox Audio Interface (Macintosh and Windows)

I had high expectations for the Mbox, mostly because of the Focusrite pre-amps, but was very disappointed. Tried it for recording classical chamber music w/ small diaphram omni spaced pair in a hall that has really outstanding acoustics. Biggest problem is the lack of headroom - makes it next to impossible to set good levels for music with a large dynamic range. Also had intermittent problems with stutter, which may be solvable with different cache settings, but I'd already decided the package wouldn't be right for me, and wanted to return it before wasting more time figuring how to tweak it. Plan to try the Presonus Firebox, once it's been reviewed. If it's anything like their Firepod, the pres should be excellent, and the firewire interface should be more stable than USB.