Customer Reviews

Edirol UA-1EX USB Audio Interface

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I use a Mac Mini as a media hub and use this to connect to the Hifi. I used the optical output so that my amp does all of the digital to analog conversion. I was using the older model but upgraded to get the 24bit/96k resolution. Non of my music is recorded at that resolution but even so I have seen a marked improvement n the sound quality. The unit itself is a bit plasticky but since it lives tucked behind the hifi it's not a problem.

I bought the Edirol UA-1EX USB audio interface in order to digitize some of my vinyl record collection, because my new Sony Vaio (so-called "multimedia") laptop doesn't have any analogue audio inputs except for a mic input. I also wasn't sure whether the laptop's onboard sound card could handle my desired sampling rate of 48kHz at 24 bit sample depth, whereas this interface claims to support analogue-to-digital conversion sampling rates of up to 96 kHz at 24 bit depth.

So far, I'm very happy with the UA-1EX -- it does everything that I need, and seems to produce very high-quality, low noise recordings. Tonight I digitized Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures, and the results were excellent (especially after running the recordings through Sound Forge's Click and Crackle Removal and Noise Reduction).

The UA-1EX ships with instructions and a CD-ROM containing a dedicated driver. Apparently the unit will work fine without installing the driver, but only at lower sampling rates. The CD didn't contain a driver for Vista, but I was able to download one easily enough from the Edirol site. The Vista driver installed smoothly, and has not caused any problems so far.

My only complaint about this unit is that it feels very cheaply constructed; the case is plastic, as are the flimsy dials for setting the levels.

But for the price, it does just what I need, and nothing that I don't.

I highly recommend this interface. I use it in live musical performances from a laptop/mini-tower computer to mixer. The sound is crisp and clear and have received numerous compliments of the sound that comes from a computer. Works flawlessly with XP & Vista. Updated drivers are readily available from the manufactures website.

You receive a lot for your money from this interface. The cover is plastic, but so are laptops. I use it in front of thousands of people a week for over a year now with no issues.

You can copy your old tapes and records to cds. Using this interface plus the Sonic Music software that came with my Sony Pc I have been able to make very good copies of old music I have not listened to in years. A lot of fun. You would never know that it came from old records and tapes as long as they were in good shape to start with. You can plug a headset in and monitor as you record or plug laptop speakers with a headset interface if you don't want to use self amplifed speakers or an amp and speakers. Seems to work well. The only issue was the driver did not seem to install as directed but I just installed as I normally would and it worked. If I unplug the interface it does seem to make my computer hibernate but I can get it out of hibernation so I am living with that issue.

Hi - I bought this for only one reason - to record my LPs onto my Mac. This unit does a great job of providing a quality input into my computer and Toast's CD Spin Doctor takes care of the rest. I haven't tried the rest of the features, which is why I only gave it 4 stars. This unit works better than the Griffin iMic (and costs more, but I think it's worth it).

Before i had a laptop and only a desktop (w/ Windows XP) i could easily record audio from a game, dvd, etc. with some $9 Radio Shack plugs. Once i had to start using a laptop and tried my old methods, i immediately came into trouble. Everything i'd record would be excruciatingly loud and distorted.

Then i find the UA-1EX. Honestly, the sound is pretty good. Although, i tend to have normalize what i've recorded. I use CDEX. The one true con of this product is that it costs $80 and feels like a cheap $3 kid's toy. Other than that, i'd recommend this to any laptop/vinyl user that wants to record.

I've used similar products, but non have come close to the versatility of the Edirol. It's not designed to be an all-inclusive "recording studio board" but it is exactly the piece of hardware I needed!