Customer Reviews

Lexicon IONIX U22 2-Input USB 2.0 Desktop Recording Studio

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this one after looking at the cheaper products from M-Audio, Tascam, and Lexicon. I agonized for weeks reading product reviews and the conclusion I came to was: for under $200, I'm going to be disappointed. All were plagued with quality/longevity issues, and many had problems with pops/drops of the audio signal. I like a bargain, but you get what you pay for. The only other one I considered was the Prosonus, which I'd recommend for anyone who desires a firewire devices (which gives you the ability to chain devices together for expansion).

Pros:

- Installation was flawless: insert DVD, follow instructions.
- 9V adapter (instead of being USB powered) and supports the 48V 'phantom' power for high end microphones.
- USB 2.0, all complaints about drops and pops for the USB 1.1 products are gone.
- Sturdy construction, nice big dials. The less expensive Lexicon products had quality complaints; this one is built like a brick.
- Simplicity. It has only 2 inputs (the 3rd 'instrument' input disables the mic/line input #1 when plugged in) but that is exactly what I need.


Cons:

- No power button? I'll need to put all my recording stuff on a switched power strip.

- Like most of these products, for some reason there is no easy way to use your PC speakers for a monitor. I'd figured there would be a way to send the digital output to the sound card, but instead I guess I'll connect the outputs to the analog PC line in. Ah well..

I bought this U22 in May and I couldn't use it once till now, which is August. The reason I bought this was because they advertised as 64 bit ready at first time. Well, yes. The 64bit driver was included. However, it had so much problems that it was almost impossible to use. They even deleted this driver from their website when several people started to complain about it.
I called customer service like 5 times and wrote e-mails 10 times about this problem, asking for the working 64bit driver. I even asked to just tell us 'about when' it will be available so we can wait. - so far I've got answer back only ONCE. "The 64-bit driver is still under development." I even wrote a personal paper letter with me signed to Lexicon, just wondering if they'd take it a little more seriously. Well, I was not too disappointed with no reply what so ever.
I checked their website daily only to see if the driver will be ready but I'm only seeing [under development] message for last 4 months. They even closed their customer forum for a few weeks and when it was re-opened last week, most of the contents of complain threads were deleted. They might say it was just due to *a server error* but WHAT THE HELL?? This company is obviously covering up their product's problems!!

So the bottom lines are -

1. NEVER BUY THIS U22 OR U42 IF YOU'RE USING WINDOWS VISTA/7 64BIT. YOU WILL NEVER KNOW WHEN IT WILL BE READY.

2. DO NOT EXPECT ANY CUSTOMER SERVICE WITH THIS COMPANY. THEY ONLY REPLIED ONCE IN 10~ E-MAILS.

My $300 U22 is still in my room, never being used for 4 months, with dust all over it.
Please re-consider if you're thinking of buying it. This company really do have problems.

OK folks, needed something to plug my bass guitar into Logic Pro 9. Might as well get one of the best products out there.
This LEXICON has given me NO PROBLEMS thus far. Plug it in, load the driver and play REALLY! Migrated into Logic Pro with
NO PROBLEM, even use it as the audio out for the Regular stuff instead of my computer speakers so the sound can come
thru my Studio Speakers as well. Does EXACTLY what it PROMISES to do WITHOUT any glitches. Yeah, there's CHEAPER ones
out there to purchase, ONLY to have to replace at a later date, but, if you've spent loads of money on your studio equipment
why have a WEAK LINK in the chain of your studio ? What ya got to lose? Try one and write YOUR OWN comments about it
afterwards. Oh, just so you'll know, there IS one small annoying thing (sorry) there's NO on and off switch on it but, I'm sure
like I did, you can figure out how to address that small issue. If you're looking for a USB connection to get your gear into your
computer, TRY THIS LEXICON, YOU won't be sorry.

This is the second Lexicon interface Ive own. Thi first was an Omega which gave me a consistent service for 5 years until recently it just fried!
It's ok tho, I still consider the omega a good option on a budget. It's not perfect or fancy but has some features and gets the job done.

I ordered the Ionix based on the good previous experience and how comfortable I feel with my previous interface and this is really an upgrade.
Currenlty I'm composing music and sound effects for video games and this is exaclty what I need. The new design is fantastic as you have all the controls in fron of you and fits just perfectly between the keyboard and your screen. It's built like a tank, very solid and with an exquisite minimalistic finish.

Features, well the ones mentioned above by the seller, nothing fancy but everything you could possible need in a home studio or if you are solely into digital music.

One reviewer mentions the ionix as not having a power switch and my previous omega didnt so I get the feeling! cause it is something so obvious.But my ionix does have a power switch and that is a great upgrade.

As for bundle software, well cubase le4 it's ok, great program. I don't use it tho and a very crappy lite version of ez drummer.

I use this interface with Logic and Garage band and the installation was a breeze on Mac, no problems with the drivers or anything else.

I really recommend this product. Solid, functional,versatile and made in the USA.

From installation onward, I've been surprised at how easy to use and good sounding this interface is. To start, the installation of the drivers was very easy on Windows Vista, though it did take a while. I just downloaded the the latest driver off of lexicon's website, and clicked the setup icon. The installation ran and eventually asked me to plug the interface in, then shortly after to reboot. After this it worked perfectly, and had automatically set itself up is the default sound card. (So whenever this is turned on and plugged in, it automatically switches sound i/o to it).

A/D D/A
While I don't have a ton of experience with converters, I immediately noticed how good the conversion was when listening to music on my computer. It's simply light years ahead of the onboard sound card. Even music streamed over the internet seemed better defined and clearer, though this did expose how compressed the high end is in streaming music. It's conversion was equally good when running a guitar direct into it and through an amp simulator.

Preamps
The preamps on this interface are a great value for their low cost, and they are quite clean, however they do add a hint of character to the sources run through them. They seem to add a mild punchiness to anything recorded to it, which suggests a slightly boosted mid range. However, this isn't the the point where it becomes detrimental on some sources. The rest on the frequency range seems quite true to the source, and I've been really happy with the early results I've had on vocals and acoustic guitar. The preamps also do have quite a bit of gain available, and I've been able to get a good level with my active ribbon microphone Blue Microphones Woodpecker Ribbon Microphone Kit by turning the knob to about 2 o'clock.

The Unit Itself
The build quality of this unit is excellent. Though it's made of plastic, it seems very durable, and is pretty heavy for it's size. (It's larger than it looks in the photo, about a foot long and about 4 inches tall) The knobs all turn slowly, and feel quite solid. They also are fairly large, and spaced far enough apart that you won't accidentally change the wrong one. All of the inputs feel solidly built as well, which is reassuring in regards to this unit's lifespan. My only gripes about this is that they could've put db level markings around either the knobs or alongside the level indicator. The unit looks awesome and the leds for input and output levels are a nice touch. Though I don't sit it between a keyboard and monitor like Lexicon recommends, it fits well next to my laptop.

Latency
Of course the latency of an interface and turn a phenomenal unit into a paperweight, but I happy to report that I've been able to achieve quite low latency (19ms roundtrip) on my 2.1 ghz, 3 gb ram laptop. This allows me to record guitar through amp simulators, and do midi work with ease. Response on both guitar and soft synths controlled by a midi keyboard is pretty much instant, which makes it really easy to work with.

Overall, I highly recommend this unit for anyone running Windows vista or later. I can't comment on the Mac drivers, but Lexicon seems to have released new drivers for Mac, so earlier reviews regarding that can probably be disregarded. The pretty small price tag of this unit, and small latency times, coupled with great preamps and great conversion make it in my opinion, the best interface in this price range.

For the price, and the fact that a reasonably good version of the Digital Audio Workstation software Cubase is included, I feel I've gotten a good deal from the IONIX U22. I've used it to record guitar and vocal parts with no trouble. Plus, it looks good on my desk and comfortably sits between my keyboard and my screen, unlike similarly priced items from M-Audio or Line 6.

For those who have complained about lack of Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6) support, updated drivers were posted on Lexicon's website on 10/21/2009, and they work fine.

After scouring the web and various catalogs for bang to buck ratio, I decided on the U22. Especially since the deal included a free microphone, and 85.00 off the MSRP by a very helpful sales associate.
The U22 interface routes into my Mac book with 4g of ram, and the fastest processor for that model. The instruments used for this review were: Hofner Jazzica, Neumann TLM120.

I found the software CDE install a bit of a nightmare, as I had to download Stuffit for the application to run the install, and this is with Leopard. It was not nearly as bug free as it should have been, as the Panthenon Reverb would not open and required more de-bugging. After the Men in Black install, I find the unit runs nearly perfect, and the Reverb Plugin makes the unit worth the effort. The unit is very transparent, and the noise floor is very low for the cost of this unit. The headphone output sounds warm, and monitoring shows very little latency on the playback and tracking. I found that even the most basic sounding track comes alive with the Panthenon!!!KUDOS there.

One very major problem: The Mic/Line/Inst input knob has a nasty overdrive spike near the end of the pot/knobs throw. I find it continuously difficult to get a proper signal level that is full sounding and does not consistently distort. The boasting about the DBX preamps is just that. If the Pots were upgraded the unit would probably be improved at least 50% imo.

I would buy again for the value, but if you can save up for the Apogee Duet or something that does not overdrive to create sufficient sound, then do it.

On paper, the specifications had everything I was looking for, plus a rather clever form factor, and a reasonable price. A reasonable price assuming it works. And it did work for the first month I had it. Then I upgraded my OS X to Snow Leopard and that's when my U22 simply died. It simply won't come up as a device option under preferences, and it won't work under any kind of application I've tried it with. On top of that Lexicon's "support" won't respond to anyone's e-mails asking for an ETA on updated drivers. I'm not the only person. All you need to do is Google "lexicon u22 snow leopard" and you'll see how many people have had problems with this product (as well as the entire lineup of ionix products). My advice - stay away from Lexicon until they show a little more willingness to communicate with their customers and put a little more effort into working on drivers. Without working drivers, this is a worthless piece of metal and plastic.

EDIT: As commented below, some updated drivers have been put out. However, the drivers are still problematic. The sound sometimes doesn't "engage" until you turn up the volume high. And if you set it too low, sometimes it just cuts out. Furthermore, I still haven't been able to get the audio to work in certain programs, notably VLC player. The U22 simply doesn't appear as an device option. So while the drivers partially work, it's still less than satisfactory for a piece of hardware that is less than a year old. I've bumped it up 1 star. The greatest problem that I have with this product now is that the company does not communicate very well with its customers. It's a good way to lose customer loyalty when you keep silent about driver compatibility issues and don't issue any kind of statement even acknowledging the problem. I don't think this is unreasonable to expect from a company that supposedly caters to the professional musician crowd.