Description: From Sound on Sound... The M Box itself is a smart-looking blue and grey affair, with a tough moulded plastic casing measuring 15.8cm high, 18.3cm deep, and 8.9cm across at its widest point. At 670 grams in weight it's light enough to be easily portable, but not so feather-like that it falls over with the slightest movement of a mic cable. It's always pleasant to discover that your sparkly new piece of recording hardware doesn't require an external power supply, but the M Box draws all its power from the same USB cable used to used to transmit data, even though it is capable of supplying two condenser mics with 48V phantom power. This is such a good idea it makes you wonder why no-one (to my knowledge at least) has done it before. In more detail, the M Box's socketry comprises two XLR/jack combi analogue inputs with Focusrite mic preamps and insert points on TRS jacks, plus co-axial S/PDIF digital I/O, two analogue outputs on jacks and two headphone sockets. Only one of the latter can be used at once, but it's nice to have a choice of mini or full-sized connectors. All the audio sockets are on the back panel apart from the headphone mini-jack, and the USB socket is also tucked away at the rear. It's joined by a button which switches phantom power off and on for both analogue inputs together. For each of the two analogue inputs there's a rotary gain control and a momentary button to select mic, line or instrument sources, current status being indicated by three more LEDs. The only concession to hardware metering is a red peak LED on each channel, which lights to indicate that the signal is "just below analogue clipping levels". The output controls are even simpler. The M Box provides zero-latency monitoring by routing signals from the analogue inputs directly to the analogue outputs (including, naturally, the headphone socket) as well as to the host computer for recording. However, there's no conventional volume control for the main stereo outputs. What you get instead is a rotary control that adjusts the mix balance between the input signal being monitored and the playback signal from Pro Tools. There's also a rotary control for the headphone output level. The final front-panel control is a dedicated mono button, which acts only on the directly monitored input signals, not on the output signal. If the mono button is not used, the two analogue inputs are panned hard left and hard right both in the phones and on the main stereo outputs, so unless you're recording in stereo, you'd probably want to keep it switched on most of the time. It can, of course, also be used to check for phase problems when you are recording with a stereo mic setup. Curiously, the layout of the back-panel socketry is upside-down with respect to the front-panel controls — for instance, the controls for input 1 are at the top of the front panel, with those for input 2 beneath them, but the socket for input 1 is at the bottom of the back panel, with input 2 above it. This takes a little getting used to, but at least it's easy to pick up the M Box and peek round the back if you get confused.
Price: 50 USD
Location: Clemmons, North Carolina
End Time: 2024-09-04T19:16:07.000Z
Shipping Cost: N/A USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
Restocking Fee: No
Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 30 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Brand: Digidesign
Number of Mic Inputs: 2
Type: USB Audio Interface
Number of Channels: 2
Customized: For Stand Alone Use
Input/Output Ports: Analog In, Analog Out, Analog XLR In, Analog XLR Out, Headphone TRS 1/4" Out, USB Interface, XLR In, XLR Out
Model: MBOX
MPN: MBOX
Number of Line Inputs: 2
Number of Buses: 2
