Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 gen3 REVIEW (Air Mode? Better than gen2?)

Hey, Julian Kraus here and this is the third generation of the Scarlett 2i2 audio interface. Let's have a closer look. Well, maybe not that close. For now. As always, let's start with the outside of the device and then have a closer look at all the buttons and knobs and also the build quality. On the front of the 2i2 Gen3 you can find two XLR and TRS combo inputs and of course the corresponding gain knobs which have an LED ring around them. They work like a very rough audio level meter which can turn green which indicates that there is a decent signal recorded, yellow which shows that the signal is close to clipping and it will turn red when the signal clips. You also find two knobs which let you separately toggle the TRS inputs between line level and instrument inputs. There is a second pair of buttons which turns on the air mode which is apparently emulating the original Focusrite ISA preamps and later in the video we'll have a closer look and listen at this feature. On the front you also find a button to turn on phantom power for both XLR inputs. Below that you got a button to turn on direct monitoring. New on the 2i2 Gen3 is that you can either have a mix of both inputs or you can monitor a stereo signal which means that the first input will be on your left ear in your headphones and the second input on your right. Even though this is a welcome addition, I would have liked to see a knob which lets me dial in the mix of my DAW and the direct monitoring signal. On the far right you got a quarter inch headphone jack and the corresponding volume knob above it. And lastly you got a big knob which controls the outputs on the back. Speaking of the outputs, there are two balanced TRS outputs. Aside from that there is not much to see on the back. You got a high security Kensington locking point and the USB connector. And let me quickly say that, thank you Focusrite for making this a USB Type-C connector. It's 2019 and USB Type-C is the way to go. Thumbs up for that. So that's the outside of the 2i2 Gen3 and I have to say that the build quality is pretty good. The red housing is made completely out of metal and the knobs feel solid and turn smoothly. Even the big knob which had a slight wiggle on the Gen2 model feels very sturdy now. One thing I just realized while making this video is that the 2i2 Gen3 does not remember its phantom power setting. So when you unplug the interface and plug it back in again, the phantom power will always be turned off. And that's a little bit of a downside because when you want to use it with condenser microphones, you always have to remember turning on the phantom power when you plug in the interface. So I really hope that Focusrite can fix this in a firmware update. Okay, let's have a closer look at the audio quality. The 2i2 Gen3 has a maximum sample rate of 192 kHz, which in theory enables you to record frequencies way above the audible spectrum. This can come in handy when you want to slow down a recording in post, which brings the very high frequencies back into the audible range. And this works with the 2i2 Gen3. Here you can see the frequency response of the XLR mic input of the 2i2 Gen3. The response is pretty much perfectly flat in the audible spectrum with the minus 3 dB point at 75 kHz. The 2i2 Gen3 also uses a 24-bit analog-to-digital converter, which means that it can theoretically record a very high dynamic range. Dynamic range is the difference between the strongest signal the interface can record and its noise floor. To be exact, the 2i2 Gen3 uses a Cirrus Logic CS4272, which is actually the same AD-DA converter found in the second generation 2i2. But don't be fooled into thinking that both devices perform the same. I measured the dynamic range and the 2i2 Gen3 has a DR of 110.6 dBA weighted. This is a very high amount of dynamic range and a nice upgrade from the roughly 106 dBA of the 2i2 Gen2. So it seems that in the second version, the ADC wasn't the bottleneck in terms of dynamic range and in the newer version, they optimized the signal chain to use more of the dynamic range that the CS4272 is capable of. All in all, the 2i2 Gen3 has a very good performance in terms of frequency response and dynamic range. Now let's check out the preamp performance of the 2i2 Gen3. I measured the so-called equivalent input noise, which lets you directly compare the noise of different preamps. The 2i2 Gen3 has an EIN of minus 128.1 dBu, which is virtually identical to the Gen2 version. But don't be disappointed that the preamps have not been upgraded, because an EIN of minus 128.1 dBu is still very low noise. Here you can see it compared to other interfaces. And as you can see, it is very close to the top performers. Here is how the noise compares audibly between these interfaces. All recordings have been amplified in post, so that you could hear the noise more clearly, but other than that, there was no additional processing done. Okay, but how does the noise sound in a typical recording setup? As you can hear, I now switched microphones and I'm currently speaking into the Shure SM7B. This is a very low sensitive mic, meaning that it puts out a very low signal, which has to be amplified a lot by the preamp. This of course brings out the noise of the preamp, and this is pretty much a worst case scenario. I will now be quiet for a second, to let you listen to the noise flow of the setup. As you can hear, the preamps in the 2i2 Gen3 are very low noise. And this also answers the question I get a lot. Do I need a cloud lifter with the SM7B and the 2i2 Gen3? I would say that you don't need a cloud lifter or fathead, because they will only reduce the preamp noise of the 2i2 Gen3 by about 2 decibels. That's not a big change in preamp noise, but you be the judge if that justifies the price of a fathead or cloud lifter for you. Because you were already listening more carefully to the recording, let me quickly turn on the air mode. Okay, now I activated the air mode, and this is how my voice sounds like. You can clearly hear that the higher frequencies are increased in amplitude. Focusrite says that this breathes life into vocals, adding unique high-end detail. Well, if you phrase it like this, it sounds a bit like magic. At the end of the day, it changes the frequency response of the 2i2 Gen3 and also introduces slight harmonic distortion. As seen before, without the air mode, the frequency response is flat. But with the air mode turned on, you can clearly see that the frequencies up to 1k are slightly elevated, and very high frequencies get amplified by as much as 4 decibels. That's why there is such an audible difference when turning on the air mode, and this results in the brighter sound. I also compared the total harmonic distortion with and without the air mode. As you can see, when the air mode is turned on, the harmonics, which are even integer overtones, are much more pronounced. This shows that the air mode adds a small amount of distortion. Although the distortion is much less than it seems at first glance. Even the highest harmonic is still 80 decibels below the fundamental. So I'm not too sure if you can even hear this amount of distortion, but it might just slightly add to the effect of the air mode. One more thing I want to mention is that the air mode slightly increases the noise of the 2i2 Gen 3. I measured the equivalent input noise again with the air mode activated, which resulted in an EIN of minus 126.8 dBu. That said, the noise difference between having the air mode turned on or off is just over a decibel, which in practice is most likely negligible. Okay, long story short, the air mode lets you accentuate high frequencies with a push of a button, which results in an airy sound. Depending on your recording scenario, this might be useful to you. One more thing I always test is the maximum system gain. If this is too low, you are not able to amplify low-sensitive dynamic mics sufficiently. The 2i2 Gen 3 has a maximum system gain of around 47 dBFS at 0 dBu, which is a decent value. This means that with a mic like the SM7B, you most likely have to max out your gain, but this way you get a healthy audio level in your recording software. So that's totally fine. One more thing I tested out of curiosity is the input impedance of the mic input. If it is too low, it can change the sound of your mic. But the 2i2 Gen 3 has an input impedance of 3 kΩ and this is a very typical value to have for an audio interface. So no surprises here. The roundtrip latency is the time it takes for an audio interface to put out a signal and then record it again. So it's a combined measurement of the input and output latency. And you want this time to be as low as possible to not perceive any delay when monitoring audio from your DAW. These are the times I got with 48 kHz and different buffer sizes. And here the same, but this time with a sample rate of 192 kHz. As far as I can tell, these are some decent roundtrip latencies. Now, keep in mind that the latency is heavily dependent on the used buffer size and sample rate. And which of the settings you use also depends on your PC. But this should still give you a rough indication of what's possible with the 2i2 Gen 3. Some quick words about using the 2i2 Gen 3 with Windows 10. When I connected the interface, it got recognized straight away and I could use it to record and also listen to audio. After I installed the Focusrite control, I had access to the ASIO settings in my recording software. And with the Focusrite control, you can set things like the sample rate of the interface. But you can also switch the TRS input between line and instrument and also turn air mode on and off in the software without having to use the physical buttons on the front of the interface, which I think is a nice touch. And lastly, if it wasn't clear by now, I want to point out again that the whole audio for this video was recorded with the 2i2 Gen 3 connected to a Windows 10 PC. So what do I think of the 2i2 Gen 3? I think it's an incremental upgrade from the 2i2 Gen 2, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Focusrite kept all the good things of the second generation and also made some slight improvements. The build quality is still very good and the Gen 3 provides the same low noise preamp performance like the second generation. In terms of dynamic range, there has been a considerable upgrade, which is nice to see. I also like the slightly smaller font factor, which makes the 2i2 Gen 3 a bit more portable. And there are some small but welcome changes like the USB Type-C connector and the stereo direct monitoring feature. If you have been considering the 2i2 Gen 2 but you're willing to spend a bit more money, with the Gen 3 you will get a better dynamic range, things like the air mode and a slightly more portable design in return. If this was useful to you, please give me a thumbs up and if you like to see more videos like this, feel free to subscribe and hit the bell icon to get notified when I upload a new video. I will see you all in the next one.