Arturia MiniFuse 2 USB-C Audio Interface - Black Reviews

I've only used it today, but it's noticeably better than my Komplete Audio 1 when making OBS recordings of myself speaking. I haven't had any flaws in its behavior. I should note that I am not using its audio output, but I did listen to that for awhile and enjoyed its sound.

This is my first audio interface, and I am by no means an expert on these, but I love this unit! Provides very clear recordings, unit is very solidly built, looks great, and the software package that it comes with is great. Very happy with the purchase! Arturia is putting out some good stuff lately.

I bought this to use as an interface for my iPad Pro with the usb-c. The iPad Pro 2021 powers this unit flawlessly for hours without any external usb power hub. I plugged the MiniFuse in to the iPad for the first time while the iPad was at about 98%, then, I plugged my usb midi keyboard into the provided usb hub that's built into the minifuse, and played, using Steinberg Cubasis 3, for about 3-4 hours, possibly longer, because I got tired. When I did decide to quit for the evening, the iPad was at around 43%. All and all, this setup doesn't seem to drain the power any faster than when using the iPad for any other day to day tasks. Very happy with the results.

There are several decent choices for "step above entry level" audio interfaces (and the quirky Audient Evo 4 is a mighty nice budget choice) and this is one of them. It's $ cheaper and a bit longer than the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd generation but it has loopback. The 2i2 is kind of the benchmark so I will compare it to that model. The low end is a hair thinner than the 2i2 but the real screwy thing is the metering. Focusrite got some flak for just having input metering being lighted dials that change color (green, yellow and red) instead of "real" metering as in the Motu M2 (a bit more expensive and bigger than the 2i2 but with loopback and good audio across the board). Arturia offers output metering similar to Motu but the input metering is worse than the 2i2 -- it only flashes red (and with a bit of a delay) when clipping. The green-to-yellow zone is more helpful in maintaining recording levels. Arturia should have gravitated closer to the Motu. Arturia gets some rave reviews but I don't see it as the greatest thing since sliced bread. The cheaper Audient Evo 4 is plastic and quirky but good sound while the somewhat more expensive Motu M2 is low noise, great metering and arguably a better lower end. The 2i2, even in 3rd generation, is getting long in the tooth and maybe Focusrite will incorporate the best of the competition in the update (and then again maybe not). If you can live with the quirks and metering, then this would be a good choice. The preamps are certainly clean enough and it's $ cheaper than the Motu M2 which recently had a price increase. The cheaper Evo 4 has loopback, clean gain preamps and incremental metering (though learning the red zone is trial and error with the Evo 4) in its plastic body. The 2i2 has the "vintage" air circuitry (which I don't use) and a bit richer sound. With all the flak the 2i2 gets over metering Arturia should have offered what Motu does, not worse than the 2i2. Many people will never use loopback although it's nice to have and Focusrite should have included it in the 2i2 3rd generation. I can't "officially" recommend the Arturia because of the metering. If that's not a problem and you can live with a bit thinner low end then you'll save $ over the 2i2 by getting this. Certainly competent but not the greatest thing since sliced bread. If you can spend $ more, get the M2 and don't look back.

For comparison's sake here, I normally use a Mackie Producer 2-2 USB Interface, but being a fan of Arturia's Keylab 49 mkII and associated products I wanted to give this unit a try because it had digital meters on the front of the unit along with some other features I was interested in.

Driver installation and other setup was easy enough, but it didn't take long for the unit to improperly work with Windows and adjusting the overall volume with any PC programs wouldn't work at all. Reinstalling drivers and updating the firmware didn't help either.

All of the knobs had plenty of range for volume, etc. but it seemed like if you turned things up too high there was a kind of high pitched overtone (almost like a mild microphonic squeal) to the sound that I didn't care for. The meters on the front worked fine, but it seemed like signals went from low to way too hot in no time. The general sound, while basically clear and clean, didn't seem to have much low end and was kind of thin, and this was the most disappointing part of all.

Sadly I returned this unit, and went back to my trusty Mackie Interface.

The master and headphone control have a lot off crosstalk , doesn t exists the less infinite

Experiencing random 8-bit white noises, click and pops. The noise happens with or without playing music. Already tried different usb ports, cables, headphones, and a laptop. Buffer size is at 256 and sample rate is at 48000 Hz. My PC is more than capable of handling those settings. My Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 2nd gen doesn't have this issue.

It's a great audio interface, while it works, and it was fast and easy to setup on a windows-based laptop.

However, after just a few weeks, randomly the headphone jack started sending barely any sound to the right headphone, but plenty of sound to the left headphone. So I tried another pair of headphones and it was the same issue. I plugged both pairs of headphones into my laptop's headphone jack and both worked just fine with balanced volume coming through both the left and right.

I tried every troubleshooting step you could imagine. I thought there might be some problem with my computer, so I went through the typical troubleshooting steps (restart, updates, drivers, sound settings, testing every USB port, etc.) and nothing fixed the issue.

The odd thing was that the studio monitors I have plugged into the minifuse were working fine (at first) during this headphone jack issue, with balanced volume coming from the left and right monitor. However, soon a weird hissing and alien-like sound starting happening if I turned the headphone knob on the minifuse. It sounds like the wiring or some other hardware components are interacting with one another, causing an electrical short or something. Unfortunately, I have no idea.

I will be exchanging this product for a new one because I want to give this audio interface another chance. It has everything I need in an audio interface, so I'm not ready to give up on it just yet. Perhaps it was just a faulty piece and a new one will be just fine. If not, I will return that one and get a different audio interface.