Edirol UA-1EX USB Audio Interface

by Edirol

Product Features

• USB powered
• Audio I/O signal indicators
• Input volume control
• RCA pin (L/R) in and out
• Up to 24-bit/96 kHz audio quality

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.5 x 2.6 inches ; 1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000BD1AF0
• Item model number: UA-1EX
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #28,003 in Musical Instruments (See Top 100 in Musical Instruments)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com

The UA-1EX is a simple ASIO-compatible USB audio interface capable of 24-bit/96kHz operation and designed to offer component-quality audio signals in and out of your computer. The UA-1EX offers excellent sound quality for connection to any RCA or S/PDIF optical device. The UA-1EX features professional A/D and D/A converters, ensuring accurate recording and playback, whether you’re recording tapes or vinyl to the computer, or just playing your MP3 collection thru a home stereo receiver. The UA-1EX also offers an electret condenser microphone input similar to the "MIC-IN" on most internal soundcards and a headphone output with volume control to quickly and easily listen to audio from your computer. The UA-1EX is ideal for use with laptops where audio quality is all but ignored, offering superior audio quality, versatility, and the utmost in portability.

The included Edirol drivers for the UA-1EX offer superior performance over OS-Standard drivers. The Edirol drivers offer up to 24-bit/96kHz audio resolution and low latency performance.

Feature List

• Up to 24-bit/96 kHz audio quality
• ASIO 2.0 (Win/Mac), WDM (Win2000/XP), CoreAudio (Mac OS X) compatibility
• Zero latency, direct monitoring
• USB powered, AC adaptor not required
• RCA pin (L/R) in & out
• 1/8" phone type S/PDIF optical in & out
• 1/8" headphone jack and independent volume control
• Audio I/O signal indicators
• Microphone input port for plug-in powered electret condenser type (stereo)
• Input volume control
• Sampling rate switch (32/44.1/48/96 kHz)
• Supports both advanced and OS-standard drivers (Win/ Mac OS X), selected with ADVANCED DRIVER.

Product Description

USB Audio Interface

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Hi-Fi Solution for Laptops, December 28, 2005

By 

Erik Swanson (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Edirol UA-1EX USB Audio Interface (Electronics)

I bought this to replace the failing built-in sound in my 15" Powerbook G4, and am very impressed with the quality of sound it delivers.

I have not tested its recording capabilities, but its ability to reproduce every detail and defect of the source material is amazing in comparison to every built-in and PCI sound card I've used. It is not designed for gaming, and does not offer the 3d sound processing features of other (more expensive yet lower quality) USB audio offerings, but it excels in what it's designed for: high-quality stereo audio.

Installation of the driver on OS X 10.4.3 went painlessly, and after selecting it as the output device in System Preferences it was smooth sailing. My only quibble is that the volume control it provides to the operating system (accessed through the volume keys on the keyboard) behaves in a linear fashion instead of the usual logarithmic fashion. I have not tested the UA-1EX on a PC, so I cannot comment on the quality of its drivers for Windows.

The construction of the device appears to be sound, but given that it is a plastic computer peripheral, I wouldn't recommend subjecting it to extreme abuse. It appears to have plenty of power to drive headphones -- the ones I currently own are driven to unbearable loudness and distortion at only halfway up the UA-1EX's headphones volume control.

Overall, I highly recommend this product for anyone looking to improve the quality of sound from their computer. It is a little awkward to use with my laptop while mobile (added cord spaghetti), but leaving it connected to my Hi-Fi system and just plugging the USB cable in when I want to use it works great. I would also highly recommend this for anyone interested in building an HTPC around a Mac Mini or other small computer with dubious built-in sound.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Product, April 15, 2007

By 

Spyral "Its All Just A Ride" (Michigan United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Edirol UA-1EX USB Audio Interface (Electronics)

We run a computer lab full of Intel iMacs with these hooked up to them for sound output. The big point that made us purchase them was the built-in hardware audio monitoring (which can be set to automatic via a DIP switch). They work great, and are sturdier than they look in the picture. They have plenty of input/output jacks, both analog and digital, and they produce great sound. Havn't tried them on a PC yet. I used one to record some electric bass guitar through Audacity and the sound quality was very surprising for such a little box. Definitely reccommend.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for recording music and archiving older media formats, August 12, 2006

By 

ninjasuperstar (Iowa) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Edirol UA-1EX USB Audio Interface (Electronics)

I have found this device to work perfectly and create sound files of very good quality. It's not quite CD-quality, but it is great nonetheless. I use the audio interface to connect my 4-track recorder to my computer. I can record to my computer (via third-party software, but you can use whatever recording software your computer comes with) with my guitar, keyboard, microphone, and so on and entirely bypass my 4-track's tape recorder. I am not sure if the whole route from guitar to computer is completely digital, but I do know that the resulting sound is much better than any analog tape could ever make. This is also the cheapest way to record analog technologies (cassette, vinyl) to a digital sound file on your computer. From there, you can make your own CDs and MP3s. You'll be very happy with this device.