Overall User Ratings (based on 46 ratings)
  • Overall:
    3.5 out of 5 stars
  • Sound:
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Features:
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Ease of Use:
    3.5 out of 5 stars
  • Quality:
    4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Value:
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Manufacturer Support:
    3.5 out of 5 stars
  • The Wow Factor:
    4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 3.5 out of 5 stars
(46) (see rating details)
Submitted March 6, 2008 by a customer from csc.com

"Really nice unit, well worth the money, works as advertised"

Overall: 4 out of 5 stars
(see rating details)
Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.
Good quality, great sound, excellent features, solidly built. A go-to device for must-work events with clients, and the most important device I have, next to my PC, for audio work.
Sound
Great fidelity, records at twice CD sample rate. Good quality, low noise. The pre-amps are weaker than I expected, but can equalize with Cubase and then do the usual compression and loudness maximizing to get the right signal level at finish. I fyou use dynamic mics, you may want a separate preamp.
Features
The inserts are a great feature, as is the dual XLR/TRS plug-ins for the channel inputs. Some features seem illogical at first (the main volume), but once you've worked with it, they make sense, and they are what you want it to do, not what you wanted at first. This is perfect for two musicians with vocals and instruments. Also great for multi-mic podcasts--isolate each mic channel into your PC for excellent post processing--and the free Cubase included will let you do a great job with that too.
Ease of Use
Surprisingly easy for my first firewire interface. No real problems. Have to unplug the Ethernet and disable my (laptop) PC's wireless network card--otherwise the interrupt handler (I think) interferes with recording. Disconnected from the network will record 4 channel audio without any problems directly to Cubase.
Quality
Solid, low noise, everything works as advertised. My platform is a laptop PC running Windows XP.
Value
Really great, outstanding value, just what I wanted, and under $200.
Manufacturer Support
Boy they need some help. I couldn't get inserts to work due to bad cables and bad advice from their e-mail help desk. Would still be going without my compressor if I hadn't found a good guy in a user forum who put me on to one of the Alesis engineers. Alesis engineering is fine, but the help desk, at least my interaction, was weak.
The Wow Factor
Small form factor, doesn't need a lot of room. Decent looking I guess.

Musical Background:

hobbyist, podcaster

Musical Style:

podcaster
5 of 5 people (100%) people found this review helpful. Did you?
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Submitted October 17, 2008 by a customer from shaw.ca

"I used this product routinely and reliably recorded rehearsals onto my Mac Powerbook G4 to Cubase SE."

Overall: 3.5 out of 5 stars
(see rating details)
Sound
Sound quality is good.
Features
Accessories: decent firewire cable, if in the correct orientation. Power adaptor improved reliability. The computer monitoring was very useful for playback during rehearsals.
Ease of Use
Connection with Mac (OS X 10.4) was not so straightforward. I eventually got the device to work after installing Alesis 1394 interface (appears in System preferences under 'other'.
Quality
product is made well. Buttons controlling impedence for channels 1 and 2 can be accidently bumped, and may lead to clipping if you are not paying attention.
Value
I got it on sale, so it was a good value.
Manufacturer Support
I like Alesis products, overall. They just need to improve their customer support.
The Wow Factor
Desktop format has reasonably small footprint for a 4-track. Not practical for transporting.

Musical Background:

active musician

Musical Style:

Rock
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Submitted March 19, 2007 by a customer from gmail.com

"Great interface for a good price"

Overall: 5 out of 5 stars
(see rating details)
Verified Purchaser zZounds has verified that this reviewer purchased this specific product from us.
If something happened to this device, barring it just flat stopped working, I would replace it with this same device.
Sound
Using the io14 for the last month I would have to say that it is very transparent, meaning it adds nothing to the sound going in and out of the device. I use soft syths (MIDI) and play guitar. They both sound great through the io14
Features
The accessories included are adequate. Amazingly it includes a firewire cable. One thing that I wish it did have is 4 analog outs instead of only 2. But I can live with that.
Ease of Use
Istallation was easy. Windows XP installed the drivers and recognized the device. All you needed to do then is to configure your audio software,Cubase in my case,to use the io14. Latency is 5-6 milliseconds.
Quality
This thing is built like a brick house. It really is solid. It's nice to be able to plug in multiple devices and not have to chase it all over the table top. It just stays in one place.
Value
I believe for the price this is a really good choice. It does what its supposed to do and does it well.
Manufacturer Support
Haven't had a need for support at this point.
The Wow Factor
I own it and so far it works as advertised. For someone coming back to the music making arena after many years, most of my previous experience was all analog recording to tape, this is just wonderful. The io14 makes it easier to record and above all it sounds great. No more hiss!

Musical Background:

Active Musician

Musical Style:

Rock
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Submitted March 28, 2008 by a customer from fastermac.net

"Will it ever communicate?"

Overall: 1.5 out of 5 stars
(see rating details)
I'll reserve judgement until the thing actually works.
Sound
I have NO idea how it sounds. With the current driver, the Mac won't talk to it.
Ease of Use
Three months and I've yet to use this thing. It does not communicate with my Mac's FireWire. It gets power, but NO communications.
Quality
It looks to be fairly well constructed. If it could only talk to the host.
Manufacturer Support
They returned my email request quickly enough, sending an application which is supposedly better at removing the old driver. I can only hope that removing and completely re-installing the software solves the communcation problem. How much time must I waste before the unit either works or is proven to be defective?

Musical Background:

Engineer
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Submitted December 29, 2008

"Could be your dream "

Overall: 4.5 out of 5 stars
(see rating details)
Sound
wicked mic pres
Features
everything u need
Ease of Use
gotta get used to the mixer
Quality
wobbly fire wire plug
Value
all the goods
Manufacturer Support
website isn't to great, they did e-mail back though
The Wow Factor
had it...getting it back

Musical Background:

producer, beat maker

Musical Style:

hip hop
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