Focusrite SAFFIRE-6-USB Saffire Audio Interface
Focusrite SAFFIRE-6-USB Saffire Audio Interface
The Focusrite Saffire 6 USB is a 2 in / 4 out USB audio interface. It uses the same award-winning Focusrite mic preamps as the rest of the Saffire range. This makes it the best value, and best sounding interface in its class. Its output configuration is also ideal for laptop DJs.
It is ultra-reliable and easy to set up, providing you with the simplest route to record into, and play back from your computer. It has lower latency than any of its rivals, and professional analogue to digital converters ensure you get the best possible signal into your recording software.
With 2 mic pres, multiple outputs and MIDI I/O, the Saffire 6 USB can be at the centre of your home recording set-up. However, its reliability means that you can take it out and record on location with confidence. The 2 in 4 out configuration is perfect for laptop DJs who need to be able to cue up material, or send two different signals to either side of a DJ mixer.
This is our most affordable interface to date, and it comes with Ableton Live Lite 8, Novation’s Bass Station synthesizer and over a gigabyte of samples. In addition to all this, you get the Focusrite FX Suite, which includes a compressor, gate, reverb and EQ to upgrade your standard AU/VST effects.
The Saffire 6 USB is certainly the easiest way of getting the classic Focusrite mic preamp into your recording set-up.
Focusrite has, over the past two decades, built a reputation as the market leader for high-quality recording equipment, with its mic preamp technology as the cornerstone of that enviable reputation. The original mic pre, as featured in the early Focusrite Forté console, used rotary switched gain controls and high-quality audio transformers. This mic preamp is still used by many of the industries greatest producers and is the sound of countless hit records. Today, Focusrite design equipment for a far greater audience, from professionals to amateur enthusiasts, all with varying budgets.
As with the Red and ISA ranges, the mic pre technology found in the Saffire range is designed to the highest possible standards. They uphold the same wide bandwidth philosophy featured in the original Forté console, back in 1989. All Focusrite mic preamps feature custom components which have undergone an intense testing and qualification process. With the facts and figures in, Focusrite designs then have to pass the essential listening stage. Any design can measure well on the test bench but only a great design can be qualified in the studio. The FET-based design in the Saffire range is no exception and ensures the same low noise and distortion performance as earlier transformer-based designs. It delivers clarity without colouration and exhibits the signature transparency for which Focusrite have become famous.
Key Performance Figures
- Real World ADC Dynamic Range: 105 dB (A-weighted)
- Real World DAC Dynamic Range: 103 dB (A-weighted)
- Chipset ADC/DAC Dynamic Range: 114 dB (A-weighted)
- Latency (Minimum Buffer Size): 77 Samples
Note:
For Latency, the test machine was a Dual Core 2.66gHz Xeon Mac Pro with 2GB of RAM, running 10.5.7
Microphone Inputs
- Dynamic Range (A-Weighted): 105 dB
- SNR (A-weighted): -105 dB
- Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz +/- 0.1 dB
- THD+N: 0.0025% (measured at 1kHz with a 20Hz/22kHz bandp
