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This is a great audio interface that checks several boxes. The boxes for me were higher quality conversion that i could hear (not just on paper specs), great preamps, virtual channel strip, high quality headphone port that can push pro headphones which ohms require more power, and portability to work with my windows based studio and my ipad when I'm portable.I have several hardware devices I use before going digital into my DAW and the symphony replaces them. I have a SSL interface, focusrite 18i20, UA710 preamp, 1176 compressor, dbx160 compressor, neve clone preamp with eq, and a pultec emulation eq. This hardware equipment has not been used since I got this interface. It’s allows me to have great preamps, compressors and eq in the studio and on the go in a small box with one cable to set it up. The symphony preamp is clean, my least favorite. If I want clean I’ll use my UA 710 and bypass the preamps (which you can do on the symphony). The AP66 neve clone is my favorite. It adds color and warmth but not too much like the Apogee AP57 preamp that is included. If I push the AP57 a little you can hear the harmonics and distortion which is good in certain applications but the AP66 is my default using either my AKG414, lauteen audio 387, or sm7b. For my taste, the AKG414 sounds better with this box’s preamps but every recording is different. The compressors that it comes with are nice. I’m a 1176 compressor guy buy I am starting to like the LA3A. It is very transparent. The equalizers are okay. I like the pultec emulations and the distortion included on the ECS channel strip. Cons - the user interface is not responsive sometimes. Routinely I have to push the button several times before it responds. It happens more when using the included preamps, eq, and compressors interface. It has optical in and out but I would prefer more analog inputs and outputs. I wish it had more “plugins” like a vocal tuner, reverb, and 1176 compressor. The included reverb can only be used in the DAW and I get the rationality but I would like the option to offload it to the dsp in symphony since I'm barely using the dsp power it has. I would also like the ability to use the additional plugins you can buy for the DAW (which I have) on my ipad as well.