I've just got myself a new audio interface, an Audient iD22, and I'm very pleased with it so far. I've been using a Line6 UX2 since 2007 and recently I had been wondering if maybe it's holding me back. Now I'm sure. The iD22 definitely feels like a significant step up. I chose this model on features. One of the main features that attracted me was the send/return, as I am intending to add some outboard gear and I don't have a mixer.

Getting it up and running was quick and painless. I had already downloaded and installed the drivers in advance a few days earlier. A prompt to update the firmware provided a choice of online or offline installation. Too easy.

I haven't done any recording with it yet. We're moving house in a few days and most of my gear was already packed away before the new interface arrived. So far I've just spent some time playing back various Sonar projects, stopping to do bits of editing here and there. I became instantly mesmerised as soon as I started listening. The sound is so smooth and detailed. Subjectively, the word "clean" kept coming to mind. It also brought to my attention a lot of things in my projects that need fixing. Some of these things I had probably noticed before but didn't think at the time that they were so bad, but now they are unacceptable. This is exactly what I want from a monitoring system.

I have seen some particular criticisms of the iD22 expressed repeatedly in reviews and forums. My comments on these issues are as follows.

Bright sounding?
Some people say that this device overemphasises the higher frequencies. I'm not sure whether that's true and I didn't really notice any imbalance in the overall sound, but the top end sounds very smooth and silky and perhaps draws attention to itself as a result. Inconclusive.

All the sockets are on the back
Some people have complained that it's inconvenient not having the headphone and DI sockets easily accessible on the front. I don't particularly find this a problem. Seriously, how many times per hour do you swap headphones and guitars. However the headphone socket is located below the USB and power sockets, which is a bit awkward.

Mostly jack sockets rather than XLRs
I agree that XLRs would have been preferable on the send, return and maybe the main outs. The unit would need to be a bit larger to accommodate this but that would not bother me. Maybe some users would want this unit for portable use and prefer it to be as small as possible.

Only one headphone amp
Yes, I would have prefered two myself.

No power switch
This won't be a problem for me, as I will be running it from a power conditioner and switching it on & off from there. But I can see that it could be annoying otherwise, i.e. having to remove and reinsert the power connector every time.

Driver stability?
This interface was originally developed for Mac only. Windows drivers were released much later and some PC users have complained about driver issues. I have experienced one crash myself so far but it's hard to know whether it was caused by the drivers. At the time I had both Sonar and Audacity open, so maybe sharing audio drivers between different programs causes problems. I will need to test this out.

Obviously there are a lot more aspects of this device to explore, but that will have to wait. Right now it's packed away and I won't see it for a while.

Thanks for posting this.
I´m playing with the idea, to buy an ID 14 as a mobile device for the  notebook.
Good to know that this units run under Win 7 -64.

i'm weighing the id22 against the rme babyface.
 
i've also looked at the celesonic 20x20, but truth is, i rarely ever need that many channels, 
it almost makes sense to me, to focus on two quality preamps, and deal with finding a mixer to add in IF i need to...
 
the rme goes to 192, the id22 only 96....
but that's no deal breaker...
 
xlr outs on the rme, only trs on the id22.....
 
gotta have midi in/out, rme has breakout cable for it, none on audient....
 
 
 
 

batsbrew
i'm weighing the id22 against the rme babyface.
 
i've also looked at the celesonic 20x20, but truth is, i rarely ever need that many channels, 
it almost makes sense to me, to focus on two quality preamps, and deal with finding a mixer to add in IF i need to...
 
the rme goes to 192, the id22 only 96....
but that's no deal breaker...
 
xlr outs on the rme, only trs on the id22.....
 
gotta have midi in/out, rme has breakout cable for it, none on audient....
 
 
 
 

I went through the same comparison a while back. The difference for me ended up being time tested solid drivers and optical I/O. I was so close to picking up an id22.
 
Rocky

Kev999
Bright sounding?
Some people say that this device overemphasises the higher frequencies. I'm not sure whether that's true and I didn't really notice any imbalance in the overall sound, but the top end sounds very smooth and silky and perhaps draws attention to itself as a result. Inconclusive.

I think these kinds of comments are to be expected when going from a device with "okay specs" to one that outperforms the first by a good leap -- especially when it comes to the converters.  IMO, that "brightness" is simply the high frequencies and harmonics you weren't hearing before.

FOLLOW-UP: BSOD
When I first set up in the new house I must have connected the iD22 to a different USB port, as Windows found "new hardware". Anyway that wasn't a problem and I just reinstalled the firmware that I had previously downloaded. But when I first launched Sonar I got the dreaded Blue Screen Of Death. Fortunately that was apparently a one-off and it hasn't happened again since then. Phew!
 
EDIT:
BSOD started occurring again but had apparently had nothing to do with the iD22. It stopped happening when I replaced the mouse.

FOLLOW-UP: RECORDING GUITAR

I eventually got round to recording some electric guitar. The iD22 has only one instrument input, but that's not a problem. With my previous interface (Line6 UX2) I always used the built-in fx via the GearBox software. The iD22 does not offer an equivalent, so I was concerned whether the absence of this facility might be a serious hindrence. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that the dry signal actually sounded good on it's own, i.e. smooth and warm. This was never the case with the UX2 where a guitar with no effects added always sounded raw and edgy. Anyway I routed the signal through an outboard compressor/gate using the Id22's send and return and succeeded in achieving the sound that I looking for.

One thing I do miss about the TonePort/GearBox is the built in tuner. I couldn't find any way of using an onboard tuner. I tried adding one to track's fx rack in the Sonar project but it wouldn't respond to the signal. I don't get why.

I installed the latest update to the mixer software. Now, whenever I launch it, it defaults to the centre of the main screen and doesn't remember its previous position onscreen when it was last closed. I reported the problem to the Audient helpdesk. They said this was intentional. Their explanation was as follows:

Yes we did this intentionally. People who use laptops with a second screen can often have problems where they loose the window if they don't have the second monitor connected and they cannot get it back without connecting their second monitor. Not very practical whilst on the road. Therefore the app now opens on the main monitor.

This seems ridiculous to me. Surely anyone who regularly uses a laptop with a second monitor sometimes attached will have learnt how to rescue an offscreen window, as this will be a common occurrence with lots of software applications. Actually it's quite simple. Just right-click on the taskbar item, select "Move" and use the arrow keys to move the window into view.

Stability
I sometimes like to keep a very short section repeating over and over while I tweak settings. With my old Line6 interface, looping a short section would always eventually result in a crash. No such crashes with the Audient. Presumably due to better drivers.

UPDATE: CONCLUSIONS SO FAR

1. As a piece of hardware, the iD22 is a joy to use. I've become very attached to it.
2. I still haven't got the hang of the mixer software though. I find it confusing. I've read everything about it and watched all the videos, but I still don't get it. Anyway I managed to get it working the way I wanted it, albeit without fully understanding why. It does what I want though, pretty much.
3. The staff on the online helpdesk are a bit patronising. Shame there is no Audient user forum.