Help me understand the potential benefits of upgrading from an Mbox 2

[Gnarcade]

I have been rocking my trusty Mbox 2 for a good 13 years now. Yikes that's actually kind of scary to type... I know there are so many different options out there for audio interfaces now, and I am considering upgrading. That being said, I genuinely don't know what I would gain by doing so? I am hoping that those of you who have a more in depth technical understanding of pro audio gear could help educate me, or point me in the right direction of some resources to learn more about what I should be considering.

I am almost exclusively recording through DI in a home capacity, and Reaper is my DAW of choice. The instruments I most commonly record are:
- line level guitar and bass DI for amp sims
- The Redbox DI out of my Hughes and Kettner 5 watt head
- Modified Gameboys (One of my bands is a chiptune project)

Thanks for any info you can provide!

 

[Drew]

How much of an upgrade are you talking?

For something in the same pricerange or maybe a little more, but brand new, you're mostly getting:

1) Something that's not at danger of dying of old age
2) drivers that are a lot earlier on in their life cycle, and will likely continue to be maintained for much longer
3) somewhat better AD/DA conversion (which will benefit you) and preamps (which from the sound of it are less important if you're mostly doing DI).

If you upgrade a bit more seriously, then you start to get into even better preamp and AD/DA conversion territory, which especially if you're doing a lot of reamping/VSTi work, getting a really, really clean DI signal can make a difference.

I'd say though that if you've gotten 13 years out of your MBox, you got your money's worth.

 

[Given To Fly]

Modified Gameboys? That sounds fun.
Drew's answers are great.

Three brands that make good products are Apogee, RME, and Universal Audio. Other companies make great products too. Your computer will filter out some products based on whether it is a Mac or PC and the types of connections available. For example, do not buy a Thunderbolt interface if you do not have a Thunderbolt connection.

Whenever a person "upgrades," it means they did not buy what they needed in the first place. I have done plenty of upgrading which has led me to spend more money than I ever needed to. Hindsight is 20/20. The only things that you know will need to be replaced are your computer and your interface because that is the nature of digital technology. Buy everything else (hardware) with the intention of never buying it again.

 

[Gnarcade]

Drew and Given, those are both really helpful insights and thoughts! Also, Drew you are certainly right that 13 years from my Mbox has been MORE than my money's worth. Ha!

I run an older PC at the moment that does not have a Thunderbolt connection. Given how much DI recording I do, it seems like Thunderbolt is the way to go regarding latency, etc. SO I have been looking at the UA units (Arrow, Apollo Twin, etc) which would mean additionally upgrading to a new PC system. Probably not a bad idea in the long run as its close to 5 years old. Its just tough to decide where to put the money, which I suppose is a problem we all deal with. I have such a tough time justifying dropping 1600-2000 into a new pc/interface combo when I could easily put that into a new guitar etc...

Gah, tough decisions ahead of me!

 

[Drew]

Well... Thunderbolt is definitely the best option for transferring large amounts of audio data back and forth at high speeds, but in practice... USB 3.0 is pretty damned fast, capable of transferring 5gbps (3.1 should double that) vs Thunderbolt's 20gbps. So, yeah, Thunderbolt is 2x to 4x faster than USB3.0, but that's a LOT of data you're sending around before you're really going to start to brush up against the limits of what you can transfer - I had to google it to figure out how big a file we're talking about, but I guess the calculation is basically # of channels times bitdepth times bitrate will give you bits per second. So, if you're tracking stereo files at 24-bit at 44.1khz, then you're talking 2x24x44100 = 2,116,800 bits per second or 2.117mbps. If you were tracking 16 tracks in stereo at this rate (and I always track to mono, per input, myself, but we're exaggerating here), then your total input bandwith needs are less than 34mb per second. You'll have a stereo mix of your project coming out at you the other way, of course, but call that 36mb per second, out of a total capacity of around 5,000mb per second - you're barely denting your total bandwidth.

Someone who didn't just look this up on Google who knows more about this than I do should confirm, but I think USB 3.0 should be more than enough for your evil purposes, if you want to hold off on that upgrade.

 

[Flappydoodle]

I upgraded from a cheap interface (iRig HD) to a nicer one (Apogee Duet)

Differences:

1. Much less noise. Very noticeable.

2. Clearer signal. Less noticeable outside of direct comprisons, but still there.

3. More headroom. Even the hottest pickups don’t clip the input any more.

4. Lower latency in Logic. The same buffer settings get me <5ms now compared to ~20ms before.