The Best Cheap Audio Interfaces - Under $100 & Under $200 - 2023 | Gearank

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Cons

Relatively weak headphone amp
Air feature raises noise floor and sounds brittle on some mics
Headphone and speaker outs share volume control

Pros

Lots of gain on tap
Includes “Air” feature found on higher end models
Highly popular and proven benchmark compact interface
Well designed transparent preamps – will work well with most mics

Focusrite has become a household name ever since the introduction of their compact audio interfaces. The Scarlett Solo is one of their best-selling and most well known product lines.

The Solo sports a basic set of outputs: a pair of L/R 1/4″ outputs for studio monitors and a 1/4″ stereo headphone out.

New for the 3rd gen is the addition of Focusrite Air. Focusrite describes Air as an emulation of their ISA preamp tonality. To my ears, it adds upper midrange and high frequency harmonics on top of your signal. This is great if you’re using warmer sounding microphones and dynamic mics.

Focusrite Scarlett Air
The new “Air” feature. See more pictures in this

The new “Air” feature. See more pictures in this Extended Focusrite Scarlett Solo Review

I find the Solo shared a very similar recording quality as my more expensive 18i20. In fact, I felt that the Solo had just a bit more mic gain on tap, enough to drive my Shure SM57 properly without an inline preamp. The 3rd gen Solo was also noticeably quieter with dynamic mics compared to the 18i20.

With condenser mics, the Solo shines with delicate sounding vocals with just the right amount of high end crispness to help a solo vocal stand out from a piano or acoustic guitar instrumental.

For line-in sources and instruments, the DI tracks are slightly underwhelming compared to the preamp’s performance with vocals. It’s not bad but not quite on par with the dynamics and clarity of other instrument/DI inputs from other interfaces.

The “Air” feature, while nice on some mics, has a tradeoff of raising the noise floor a bit and making some mics sound brittle on the high frequencies.

The Headphone and Speaker outs share a volume so you have to turn off your speakers when you want to mix on headphones. The headphone out was also unable to drive my 250 Ohm Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro headphones efficiently. I recommend headphones of up to 150 Ohms if you want to be able to efficiently drive them with the solo without distortion.

With the Air preamp feature, additional gain on tap, the Scarlett Solo still earns its way into the desks of tens of thousands of musicians, voice over artists, podcasters, and streamers all over the world. Get it if you want a compact audio interface that does a great job pairing with even the most expensive microphones thanks to its preamp and Air feature.

Tech Specs

A/D Resolution: 24-bit/192kHz
Preamp: 1
Channels: 2
Inputs: 1 x XLR combo (mic), 1 x 1/4″ (Hi-Z)
Outputs: 2 x 1/4″ TRS
MIDI: None
Power: USB bus powered
Phantom Power: +48V
Bundled Software: Ableton Live Lite, Pro Tools First Focusrite Creative Pack, Focusrite Red plugin suite, several more