Good Ol' Interfaces That Hold Up?

ESI U46XL German engineering at it’s best. This has to be 7-8 years old and still will do just about everything.
I use it with Windows, iOS, Cubase, ProTools, & Amplitube.
Plus, I can hook up any old phono level audio sources like cassette machines, turntables, and CD players straight to a computer.

 

RME Digi 9652. Made in 1999 and is still rock solid and as good or better than any current "prosumer" interface. Only works with 32bit Win 7, but great for live tracking.

 

One of my BLs has an older Presonius fireware I/F running off an ancient Windows laptop that has a firewire card - can you even buy a Windows laptop nowadays with a firewire I/F or that can take a Firewire card? His laptop's screen is pretty messed up and we fear it will go teats up soon .

 

It was top of the line professional gear when it came out. More suited to out of the box mixing in which the computer is just for recording and editing, but all processing is done on analog gear.

 

Line-6 UX interfaces first came out in 2005 and still being sold "New" today.
It works also as a dongle for POD Farm which is actually a pretty good modeling app that doesn't seem too dated.

 

Focusrite Saffire Pro - I have a 40 and a 14, chained together for the big jobs, and just the Pro 14 for the small ones.

Seems that a lot of Firewire gear is still in good working order. To bad Firewire itself is no longer advanced. I can't get these units to work under Catalina with the TB2 -> FW800 adapter, so that's the end of the road for these beauties.

With that in mind, I would have to say that the MOTU Audio Express makes more sense. Firewire for the old Macs that I still use, and USB for everything newer. And, for any of the old analog tape people, it reads/writes SMPTE.

MOTU.com - Audio Express Overview

 

I've been using my Tascam US-2x2 since 2016, I think they came out in 2015- not sure. This has been rock solid, even after a couple of drops on the floor. One problem is with drivers and Win 10 not getting along at times, but easily corrected. This never quits in the middle of anything.

 

Anything by Metric Halo or Lynx with the "detached" AD section. You buy an interface and as technology marches forward, computers evolve, etc. you can contact the manufacturer and get a new AD that replaces your current one and keeps your interface working on into the next generation of tech. That's as future-proof as it gets.

 

That's my RME, too. It just has digital inputs via SPDIF, AES, ADAT or SMUX.

 

The biggest shortcoming I see with "vintage" audio interfaces is their connectivity and the deprecation of some types of connectors on some computers... USB, FireWire, Thunderbolt, etc etc.

My older devices just don't connect to my newer computers anymore - FireWire and Mac, I'm looking at you!

 

Come on now, you know it has all settled out now. Those USB-C connectors are the standard for the rest of time.

 

I've been pretty happy with the scarlet line minus the solo. I sold the 2i2 I had when I moved and picked up a solo. Wish i kept the 2i2. I am planning on moving to an 18i8 pr similar.

 

I'm still running a old Motu 896 hd and its been a tank. I'd like to eventually go with something more recent tech usb c, better converters,and pre's ect. but it still does it's job and sounds great so it hasn't been a pressing need for now.

 

I have two Thunderbolt Claretts (they were introduced 4-5 years ago, I believe). I dig them.
they have Thunderbolt v1, but I'm using them via Thunderbolt 3-to-1 adapter both on modern Macs and PCs.