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The Forte has first-class sound for any price bracket, and is an outstanding value at its price. Its elegant exterior accurately reflects the design philosophy that went into defining the Forte's features, components, and user interface. It does a few things, and does those flawlessly. The D/A conversion is clear and open, full of detail, and neither constrained nor hyped at any frequency range. The A/D is about on-par with D/A, although I do not use the analog ins as frequently as the line outs. The RedNet preamps are the transparent kind and are full of more than enough gain for any mic, including weaker dynamic and ribbon mics. The direct monitoring of the pres and line-ins can be switched in and out using the OLED touchscreen, so it is easy to hear how faithful the A/D is. I've found that self-noise with the pres is not an issue, and is not present until you get into at least the 50db gain territory, and even then it is very minor - there is no "rush" up of gain and noise as I've heard with some higher gain pres. Unlike the Saffires, these pres won't tack on added warmth or color. The pres are instead clean and loud, with a natural frequency response. For me that is perfect, but it's something to keep in mind if you're not using outboard and want a more colored tone going into the box. Compared to much pricier MOTU gear I've used, the sound is worlds better. I got the Forte after being mostly happy with a Saffire Pro 40, but dissatisfied with the cloudy sound that would add up because the mics and lines go through the 40's colored pres. When I first plugged mics into the Forte I immediately heard a vast improvement and a noticeably more life-like sound. The only downside for my use is the lack of digital I/O, which would add the capability to expand the range of uses for the interface. That said, I opted to go for the Forte over similar interfaces because it does the most important things extremely well, and adds no . Adding more physical features to what is such a compact design would likely mean sacrificing component and signal quality. Some people have reported issues with drivers, but I have not had any, probably because the driver was updated a couple years ago.Read full review
Verified purchase: No
Long time Focusrite fan. Ie. Saffire Pro and Control 24... Digital encoder is a must have for precise volume tracking (no channel imbalance ) and mic trim. Touch screen switching is handy.... Sound quality met expectations, but have not been able to use it with my reference equipment yet.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
The surface of Focusrite is not quite good, but it can work well.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Verified purchase: No
easy to use
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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