MOTU 16A 32x32 Thunderbolt / USB 2.0 Audio Interface with AVB Reviews

I bought two Moto 16A's to have a full 32 track system and intend to add more so I can operate a full analog insertion of 46 channels at mix time, saving two for my playback. They are rock solid, their customer support is second to none and I have recommended them to many people here in Nashville. Their chipset is of the highest caliber and they are a connectivity Rolls Royce. Best there is right now in pro audio.

I started out having two Arturia 8Pre's linked by ADAT to give me 16 channels of analog I/O but as my synth collection grew I needed to expand my I/O count. I also wanted to reduce latency. I also need to be able to mix independent of my DAW sometimes. The 16A was the prefect option. I linked my 8Pre's to it via ADAT and now I have 32 channels of analog I/O at 48khz. I love the mixer capability and the ability to quickly switch between a configuration to use it as an interface with my Cubase DAW with ~1ms latency, or use it to mix standalone without my DAW. Finally when the day comes I need to expand further I'll add another 16A or 1248 via AVB. Sound quality is excellent. Sounds pristine to my ears.

I've been using another high end interface, but got tired of dealing with latency and limited routing options when tracking larger ensembles. This interface was so much less expensive (about the price of a single add on input module on my other interface), that I was concerned about how it would sound. Very pleasantly surprised, and actually preferred the MOTU on a blind test (piano recording). I am using a Apogee Big Ben for clocking, so that might help, but whatever the reason the 16A sounds fantastic. I have a mid level commercial studio with very picky clients, so sound quality is paramount, and I know this unit will make them happy.
Now on to the routing - it's unbelievable. It has internal mixing buses, eq, compressors etc that can be used for monitoring while the unaffected sound goes directly to the DAW. Or can record with effects applied.
All of the analog outputs are great for sending to personal monitoring systems at any sample rate. You could use ADAT outs, but most personal monitor systems Max out at 48k, so analog outs make concerns about higher sample rates a moot issue.
Latency is effectively zero, but with no strain on the computer/DAW. It can be a bit daunting to really get the routing options down (because of the almost limitless routing possibilities) but MOTU has some great help videos. Once you understand the routing, you realize there's almost nothing this interface (or multiple ethernet linked AVB connected MOTU interfaces) can't do. Definitely a hidden gem, and hands down the best bargain out there. IMHO.

I bought this to replace two aging MOTU firewire interfaces linked together. At first I had some connecting issues, but I bought a new iMac and all is good. I have paired this with the Beringer Powerplay headphone distribution and I can easily track a band with plenty of inputs and easy monitoring. My mic preamps (True Systems) go straight into the 16A and everything sounds clean and crisp. The routing is very easy with the MOTU web app, and I finally have a system that I am proud out and confident it sounds great for personal and client work.

I upgraded from a RME UFX gen 1 and a ADI-8 MkIII I was using for 16 channels IO to a SSL X-Desk. The RME is a great, solid interface, but its conversion tech is getting a bit long in the tooth. The specs on the 16A are really impressive and I wanted to see if it lived up to the marketing hype. Happy to report, it does!

It is running the same ADDA conversion as the Apogee Symphony systems, and it delivers some amazing sound quality. I honestly was very skeptical of a noticeable improvement over the RME, but I definitely hear it, checking against some high res 24/96 reference tracks. Best way I can describe the sound is that the RME is very clinical. It's super clear, and punchy, but lacking some of that 3D depth and airiness around the sound sources. The Motu 16A has this sparkle and airiness, with a really 3D sound stage. It's got the clear punchy sound of the RME, but with this extra deep clarity and sizzle. It is amazing for the price, and this unit works great for summing/OTB mixing, since it doesn't have the extra headphone outs, mic pres, etc. It's just high quality IO. SO I feel like I am paying only for what I need. And it is a modular system, so if I need more down the line, they have a range of other products on the AVB platform.

So what are the downsides? Well, it is tricky to get good performance on a PC at first and required some tweaking. I have a custom built workstation with an ASUS X99 WS-E MB i7, 64MB of RAM, with the thunderbolt expansion card, and initially I was getting a lot of clicks and pops, even with a high buffer. To be fair, I had not tweaked Windows 10 for audio production, but the RME had just worked in this regard. So I followed some steps the Focusrite website offers for tweaking, like setting the power mode to high performance, and setting priority for background services which helps drivers, I also disabled HPET per a forum recommendation, the High Precision Event Timer, which can be done in Device Manager or Bios. I also experimented with turning off Turbo Mode. But the big one for me, was also disabling wifi/antivirus and turning off my motherboard monitoring software, CAM. Then magically, I could run super low buffers 64/128 and get great latency <2ms. These are tweaks most people always recommend for PC DAWs so no harm in making sure I can run at top performance.

Now the good side, on my 2015 MBP, it worked flawlessly out of the box. I just installed the driver and plugged in the thunderbolt.

Build quality is excellent, not cheap feeling at all. The display is a little lack luster with one color, so you don't really get a good indication of clipping on the box, but I am ok with it. That's what the software mixer is for. The Web based mixing interface works great. It's not RME Total Mix, but good enough for my needs.

If you want top quality conversion at an affordable price and don't mind tweaking some things on a PC DAW, then this is definitely a good buy.

Needed to replace my 2408 when it died. I chose the 16A because it has lots of analog inputs. Works great.

Out with the old, In with the new. Just bought the new mac pro, switching from PCI to Thunderbolt was as simple as purchasing this interface. It could be a placebo effect, but the converters seem to sound cleaner. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because it doesn't come with a Thunderbolt or network cable, and the only way to do firmware updates is with a network cable. Also, if you leave the network cable plugged in, you'll have issues changing sample rates.

I wish I could give this 5 stars. I've been using a MOTU 16A, 8A, and 24Ai for over 5 years as my main studio converters and recently as interfaces. As standalone converters they are flawless, sound incredible, and any conversion time is imperceptible. As USB or TB audio interfaces, they don't quite stand up to the likes of RME in terms of stability and driver latency, but they are incredibly good. I can count the number of hiccups I've had on one hand across multiple systems and configurations, PC and Mac.

My gripe is with their implementation of AVB. I run a studio with a lot of outboard synths and a couple rooms. I started with an RME Raydat + MOTU converter combo, then decided to dive into just MOTU interfaces using AVB so I could network multiple rooms and run single CAT5 cables instead of worrying about optical cables or unbalanced synth connections running too long. Long story short it works, but that .625ms of additional AVB latency advertised appears to be heavily idealized.

For those wanting more details: I used the 8A as my main interface over USB 3.0 with the 16A and 24Ai as additional AVB nodes with the new 6 port MOTU branded AVB switch. I used high quality CAT5 everywhere with no run over 25 feet (then CAT6 and CAT7 for testing). With my machine and buffer settings, round trip latency should have been ~4ms or less even with AVB latency included. Best I could achieve was 7ms which is almost twice that amount. MOTU recommends using their onboard mixer for latency compensation but this never improved the latency floor, just how well in sync everything was with each other. Went through the dance of making sure firmware was up to date, using different interfaces connected to my host computer (USB 2.0 and Thunderbolt), and trying Mac vs. PC as well as different DAWs. No changes. 7ms floor, but in some cases it felt much higher. My concern isn't even necessarily the number itself it's that there's an extra 3ms that I can't account for, and MOTU offers no settings or monitoring for AVB performance. Everything is automatic and you are left with just your ears.

So that leaves me using my 24Ai as my main interface now, with the 16A and 8A connected to it over ADAT with no further expandability. That being said, this configuration is working flawlessly with the latency expected. After this experience I'll be moving towards MADI capable interfaces when its time to expand again.

This MOTU AD converter uses the OLD type of Thunderbolt connector that is physically the same as a mini displayport or USB-type B connector. The signal transmission is not the same as mini displayport or USB-B, just the physical connector/port.

I needed to connect to Mac Mini with the new M1 chip. That computer uses the newer Thunderbolt 3 port (physically same as USB-C connector/port but with differences in signal transmission).

That was not clear from the MOTU description and honestly another MOTU letdown. They seem to get so much right at a great price point, but then have brain cramps like this. The newer Thunderbolt 3 connectivity was rolled out about the same time as the 16A. Could they have given us both type ports, or if not looked ahead to the upcoming standard? It's not easy to find a cable that will mate. THe AudioQuest Carbon USB-B to USB-C looks like it will work but it's $... Be advised.

Just recently switched from an APOGEE SYMPHONY to this for reasons of a smaller foot print and easier cabling! I cannot tell if the sound quality is different , but it sounds great! It was easy to hook up all the cables, just plug them in the back. The fact that I can just unplug one cable if it goes bad is a real Plus! The software seems easy to use , I just used the simple setup as I have a simple setup and do NOT use the mixing software. The unit seems solid enough but I only wish it was USBc or Thunderbolt 3, as my mac is a bit finicky about adaptors! All in all it seems like a great purchase and at the price, NO ONE can touch it!

I needed to replace my 2 eight channel Echo Layla A to D converters. I have owned the Laylas for around 15 years and they were starting to get flakey. I replaced them both with 1 MOTU 16A and I am very happy with the 16A. I run a small recording studio in Minnesota.

This piece met every expectation except one. It is replacing two M-Audio Delta 1010s (because M-Audio driver doesn't support dual cards under Win7 - shame on you MA!!). Integration of the 16A was flawless and the latest drivers and firmware updates were easy to apply. After following the instructions, downloading the drivers and doing the firmware update, the unit answered up without hesitation or issue first time.

The only issue is that when switching between sample rates, the unit takes 15-20 seconds to 'reboot' and process sound again. With my 1010s, this was instantaneous - but these were PI-card based with no DSP. It's only a minor inconvenience and only when for example I am doing the final rendering of a 48/24 file to a 44.4/16 for burning a CD.

Sound is awesome and the stability is rock solid. Completely eliminated my digital distortion issues of my 1010s going out of sync.

Unit runs cool (thermally). The connections in the back are solid close-grouped but very accessible. Nice job putting all those connections in a 1U space!

Every now and then when I reboot my computer with the MOTU 16A powered up, the computer fails to recognize the 16A. BUT, I think that is more of a computer problem than a MOTU problem because my computer acts a little funky sometimes.

All and all, I am very satisfied with this unit and got it at a very reasonable price from Sweetwater. If I had the funds, I'd buy two more and build a 32-channel live recording rig to replace my Alesis HD24 (again, shame on Alesis for dropping such a wonderful piece of gear).

Thanks MOTU. Job well done! Can you do something about the delay when sample rates are changed? If you can't eliminate the delay, it would be great if you could at least reduce the delay. If not, I'm still very satisfied with this unit.

I had a MOTU 24 I/O for over 10 years and just loved that interface. It had 24 analog inputs and outputs and had rock solid drivers. I purchased this 16A because of the lack of PCIe slots on my new iMac. At first the 16A would not work at all with El Capitan 10.11.1. I contacted MOTU and they sent me a new driver update that worked but is not perfect. I still get dropouts and pops from time to time. The 16A also sends out a loud pop noise when it is first turned on so you have to make sure your monitors are turned off until it boots up. It also takes about a 30 seconds to boot up. The blue screen is hard to see from across the room so I do prefer the colored led's that were on the older models much better. Needless to say I believe the 16A is a step backwards for MOTU. It just does not work as good as their older units did and it only has 16 analog outputs. MOTU is a good company so I am sure they will eventually fix these driver issues in future updates.

I've owned several MOTU 2408 firewire interfaces that were used with an older MacPro. Thought it was time to update the studio to thunderbolt to take advantage of lower latencies, and the older MacPro couldn't be updated to the later (much less latest) Mac OS. So, I bought the 16a interface, and ordered a new M1 MacMini to drive it using Logic. Had to wait for the new MacMini to arrive. So when it did, I couldn't wait to fire it all up and get to work. My previous experiences with Motu were definitely a love/hate relationship. When things work, all is well, but their old equipment, drivers, and software were very finicky and buggy. Not everything worked, and it often took days of experimenting to get drivers and devices to work -- sometimes with no explanation for why it didn't work, or eventually did. Magic I guess. -But this is 2020, ten years later. Surely this company has a more stable product line by now. Surely. I was expecting the love/hate relationship to be transformed to just "affection". My first clue this was not going to go as smoothly as hoped is the MOTU thunderbolt connector. It's the older type 2 thunderbolt connector but new Macs use the newer type 3 thunderbolt connector. Really MOTU? From its inception, thunderbolt has been a Mac interface type. Yes, a few PCs have them, but it's a Mac thing ..... primarily. The newer type C thunderbolt connector and this 16a interface were launched at about the same time, but MOTU stays with the old connector type? This requires that you get a $... apple converter (type 2 to type 3 or "C" thunderbolt). Great. But it gets worse. I get it all connected, and the motu discovery app (necessary) won't recognize the 16a. Tried all kind of permutations. Nothing works. Internet searches for fixes finds lots of others who have similar problems. Tried lots of those suggestions. Nothing works. I go back to the MOTU website and finally stumbled on or noticed a banner that says something like NOTICE TO NEW MAC USERS --- hmmm that might be important to read. Turns out the MOTU interfaces are not at all compatible with the newest (big sur) Mac OS. This is true as of Jan 9, 2021. So I have a $... new mac mini, and this new 16a, and they don't work. Way to go MOTU. You did it again. So the love/HATE relationship with MOTU is now just.....hate. The MOTU disclaimer about the incompatibility with Big Sur says "check back with us later". Buy MOTU products at your own risk. When/if they work, they can be nice, but right now, and for who knows how long, I have an expensive boat anchor.