I was very pumped about the iD14 mkII. Bus power, LED meters, a massive history in audio industry - everything I knew about Audient and its products brought me to purchase the new iD14. I was disappointed to say the least.
Pros:
- build quality is nice, aesthetically good
- controls on the top panel allow for lots of negative space around them with a smaller form factor than the competitors
- LED meters
Cons:
- drivers implementation is absolute garbage. See issues below
- at times, the interface would be initialised at max volume after connecting it to a Mac or Win computer, thus potentially harming my equipment and ears if I don't remember to touch the big volume knob upon starting the interface. Moving the knob will snap the volume at the correct value, but if you forget to do that, expect to jump on your chair at the first notification you get
- the interface produces a loud pop when powered up, making it fit for mobile setups, not so much for desktop or non-mobile setups where users will want to start their whole gear up with one single action
- when connected to a computer in sleep mode, the iD14 keeps requesting power from the bus source, thus staying on when connected to a sleeping device. This drains the computer's battery very quickly, and it's painful especially with mobile setups
- these issues would be acceptable on Behringer and similar low-budget brands, and none of the above is happening anyway on those products. An Audient product at that price point simply cannot show such problems, and this puts this product way below the competition
- all the issues above were reported to Audient's support centre, which proven inadequate as far as helping fixing them. Long response times, useless suggestions, no reporting of the issue to engineers that could fix it. I was basically asked to do QA on those issues for free. That can't happen.
Very, very disappointed with the product and the brand in general.
