20 Best Xlr To Usb Adapter (2023 Updated)

I bought a Shure SM57 and 58 in my youth, expecting to be a rock star. Well, it hasn’t happened (yet), but now I want to record for Internet content. Dissatisfied with my USB mic, I remembered my professional-grade Shures in the drawer.

I just looked for a Shure USB adapter and found this, didn’t think twice about buying it. I had completely forgotten that most people use a Focusrite Scarlett, but it matters little, because this thing ROCKS! No need for an XLR cable at all, I just plugged it into my SM57 (since I have a windscreen for it), and boom, I have clean and clear dictation on my computer.

I had forgotten about the concept of preamps, but this has one built right in. Everything on it works perfectly, including the live monitoring through headphones. It’s very low noise, at least the way I’m using it.

And if I ever needed to for whatever reason, I can connect the mic and adapter with an XLR cable, if I don’t want the X2u hanging off the back.

I’ve tun a VA/commercial studio for 8 years. This is SUPERB for travel. It’s light, tiny, the sound quality is great, and it’s got 48V phantom. More importantly, it just works. Windows? Linux? (Yep! It works GREAT under Linux – Ubuntu/SUSE/Slack/Mint.

I’ve tried them all) You just plug it in and it goes. It’s even got MONITORING. Nice. It’s pocket-sized and if you pair it with an MKH-416 (Sorry Shure, but it’s an easily-recognized industry standard mic, for size comparison.

I love your stuff, too. I promise) you can fit it in a TINY case and stick it in your carry-on bag. (The USB version of the PG27 was good for this too, but sadly it was discontinued, and this is a high-quality option, depending on the mic you pair with it, and more versatile.

) TL;DR: I love this thing.

I’ll use this with an Audio-Technica wireless system to do a live streaming event at a high school reunion. Needed something that would provide a higher-quality audio source than the microphone in my DSLR, through my laptop and the Magewell USB Capture HDMI card into OBS Studio.

You can also place a mixer ahead of this adapter, as it can accommodate a line level source with its volume control, so you can connect just about any audio source to it. Haven’t detected any ADC noise so far.

Very useful tool for the price.

The whole point of using this is that it allows you the fallibility and freedom to use whatever microphone you would like. Provided that mic connects with a XLR connector of course, and doesn’t require phantom power to function.

I use this causally, it’s paired with a Audio Technica ATR1300, on my desktop computer with a simple flat base mic stand. Discord, Telegram, really whatever I’m doing that might require me to transmit my voice works just fine with it.

There’s no audible hiss or noise. The audio is crystal clear. Since it’s USB, I can easily migrate the setup to computer from computer. If I got a dud, like I did with another audio interface from another company.

I’d be having to deal with warranty and RMA hassles. You might as well. So open it and test it as soon as it arrives! Note: You’ll need to do a little configuration in the settings to get your microphone of choice to be audible.

When I first plugged everything in I could barely hear myself.

While designed to plug a dynamic mic straight into a computer, it also can be patched to an output of an audio console. The only thing I had to change on my laptop was the quality attribute from ‘shared’ to ’24 bit’ as under ‘shared’ it was distorted.

A small LED indicates if you’re connected. 10 foot cable is plenty of length. Sound quality is clean. Perfect for Zoom meetings and similar online meeting programs. No need to install drivers. Great adapter for the price.

Sooner or later, you’ll want your good mic to be usable in your computer. For example, podcasters will love this or when on a Zoom meeting, having a mic that’s better than the webcam-supplied variety makes it easier for everyone to understand you.

Just connect this to any XLR mic and it becomes a USB mic. How cool is that. No expensive equipment or finicky drivers. It just works. Nice product, I’ll be making a lot of use of this.

Build quality is good. Enclosure and knobs are metal and feel sturdy, not plastic, cheap, or flimsy feeling. The LED screen is nice, although the metering is so-so but is good for a unit of this price.

It sounds good, preamps have plenty of gain, and headphone amp is powerful enough to run the various headphones I have with, each with different impedance levels. The direct monitoring is great, and when not using direct monitoring, but going through my DAW latency is not even noticeable (just be sure to adjust your sample rate).

The On/Off switch would seem like a no-brainer that should be have been on all interfaces years go, so that’s a nice addition. I just don’t think it gets any better than this at this price point. Ran perfect out the box on my Macbook Pro, but when initially running it on my Windows laptop, I noticed that after a while the inputs started producing a ton of static.

I went to the Motu website and updated the firmware, and haven’t had a problem since. I had the Audient Evo4, and it worked fine, but feels cheaply made. That one comes in a little cheaper, but doesn’t have the build quality, MIDI in/out, LED screen for monitoring, separate gain knobs (ins, out, and headphone on the Audient all use the same knob, so you can’t change anything simultaneously).

At the time of writing this review, I can confidently say this is the best 2in 2out interface in its price range.

Pro-level interface. Simple design, very clean sound. Line/Mic in. USB-C out (easily adapted to other outs) I use it with two condenser mics (SM57, etc. ) to record stereo live instrumental music, and narration.

Phantom power for the mics works great. Compares favorably with the Apogee Duet it replaced. Well built. Sits on your desk or you can use it in field. Have used it with 2010 Mac Pro tower thru added USB-3 hub, Chromebook, Android phone.

Works with all. Can use any recording app or program. On computer (Mac or PC) you can download drivers. On phone (Iphone or Android) it just conforms with USB-C standard. Depending on phone you may need a powered USB hub and for Iphone you need a lightning adapter.

My Google Pixel (Android, USB-C) used it straight-up with no hub. Worked fine.

It’s a Motu. Not much else to say. Excellent sounding (very transparent), well built and very compact. The only surprise is that a mono source will only play out of the left channel (input #1). This applies to both speakers & headphones.

You can get a mono source to play out of both speakers by engaging the “Mon” (Monitor) button on the input channel in use. Then, you will have to deal with the latency issue which adds some delay. The same is true if you re-route the signal through the software that you are using.

I settled for one speaker when recording a mono source. The only complaint that I have is I would like to see some kind of reference for the input level controls so that one can come back the next day and be sure of the same input level.

The unit is so small and light that I had to secure it with Velcro in order to use the input and headphone jacks.

The AI-1 integrated with my Mac set up seamlessly. Unlike some older devices (such as the FastTrack Pro I upgraded from), the AI-1 can be control with the Mac OS X audio controls on your keyboard. The headphone amplifier works really well and the mic/quarter inch input delivers really high quality sound for home music recordings (using Logic Pro), podcast recordings and more recently Zoom calls.

I don’t like desk clutter and this device is about the size of an Apple TV and connects through one cable which I run through my external monitor. One issue that the upgrade to Mac OS X Catalina fixed was that I would have to unplug and plug back in the audio interface, so my computer didn’t automatically use my external monitor’s audio.

However, that is no longer an issue. Another small issue, that seemed to be fixed with the upgrade to Catalina, was that I would hear a very faint radio signal in my headphones, but it didn’t impact my recordings at all.

Finally, I have this AI-1 connected to a pair of JBL monitor speakers through the balanced line outs on the back of the unit. The audio output is incredible. If you’re looking for a minimalist, high-quality USB audio interface, the AI-1 is an excellent choice.

I bought the Rode AI-1 for my mic setup about a year ago. I was surprised at how well built (Materials and overall feel) the unit was for the price. It’s a simple piece that in my opinion is a great long term investment from a trusty brand.

I’m pretty tough on products I buy and I wish I could give it some sort of negative feedback but genuinely, it’s so simple and well built I can’t. I’ve paired it with the RODE Procaster Broadcast Quality Dynamic Microphone and a mixer.

Great setup with pristine sound.

Was a little annoying to get working with Ableton Live 10 at first, there were driver issues but it’s sorted and now works perfectly. Had to use ASIO all then switch to ASIO RODE. Very minimal latency of about 8ms and high-quality audio with my Audio-Technica M50s.

It’s clean and simple and portable too. The cable is a little short if your PC is on the ground but it’s great that it’s USB-C as there are many cheap, high-quality cables available.

I am an independent musician and when I am NOT recording at a professional studio, I have a set-up at home to do rough drafts/etc. I have the MXL Mic Mate Pro hooked up to my MXL microphone. This Mic Mate Pro provides phantom power & connects directly to my macbook.

No reason to have a weak tube pre-amp & millions of feet of XLR cords anymore. PROS: Super Easy Set Up (I can plug it in & record), Super Light Weight (easy to travel with, seeing how I use a macbook, I might record at home, a friend’s house, a vacant warehouse, etc), Headphone & Gain Controls directly on the piece (this is a HUGE improvement compared to other XLR/USB converters, including other MXL products), Sound is super clean and sometimes I will record vocals at home to have them mixed and mastered at a professional studio – This saves me money, as I do not need to pay to record my vocals and just have the mixing/mastering which is going to be time I’d be paying for normally anyway.

CONS: I feel like the Headphone Volume should be able to go a little louder. I have to control that on Adobe Audition (the program I record in) if I need it to go louder than what is capable on tool itself.

Does what it promises with little setup or configuration required. I’ve used this device to run audio out of an existing PA into the laptop of a presenter wishing to record audio synced with her PowerPoint slides.

The unit has performed admirably, though I haven’t done anything that would seriously test its durability.

I use the Mi ate Pro for Podcasting and for recording screencasts. It keeps me from having to do complex set-up of an amplifier. I just plug the microphone into the Mi ate and the Mi ate into may laptop.

The sound is very clear and set-up and use is so easy. The pre-amp doesn’t seem to have a lot of power for high-volume recording, so I don’t know how well it would work for recording music. But it’s perfect for podcasting and screencasting.

With the move to more online meetings, I was I was looking to upgrade the quality of my microphone over the horrible sounding on board microphone on my laptop so I decided to invest in a nice quality microphone.

After choosing the microphone I wanted, I had to find a way to connect the XLR microphone to the USB port on my computer. Installation was as simple as possible; plug it in and Windows recognized the device and installed the required driver.

I’m very satisfied with my purchase!.

I have been looking for a solution (for traveling) to try and match or come close to the sound quality I get when doing voiceover work from my home studio (using a Mackie Onyx 1220 mixer – which has a pretty darn good microphone preamp in it).

Along with this Shure unit, I have tried 3 other USB interfaces and my final solution for traveling will be a very small compact (excellent sounding) Mackie 402VLZ4 mixer. This mixer does not have USB but has noticeably more dynamic range (full, natural audio quality) than these USB interfaces I have been trying.

Now, the mixer with its power supply is MUCH bulkier and heavier than this slim unit, but I have a big piece of baggage I’m going to be using so 🙂 That said, for many people in many instances, this Shure interface should work just fine.

Very nice solid build, I like the way the volume controls (dials) are situated (compared to some of the others on the market which have knobs instead of dials). It’s a tad “heavy” for its size, but it not really too heavy at all & does a good job probably as well if not better than other similar “stick” type interfaces.

I’ve been testing various methods of doing voice work when traveling, and this is about as compact as I can get. The unit provides phantom power for condenser mics, clean mic preamp, and has a decent level for monitoring on my Sony MDR-7506 phones.

Also trying out AT 2020 mic and these two make a pretty good team. Using an older version of Adobe Audition to apply some compression after recording, and that seems to work nicely. Ideally I like to hear voice processing as I record (I use a dbx 286), so this is a sacrifice for the sake of keeping equipment minimal for travel.

My one issue which I have also read in other reviews online is the level out is very hot. I have to dial the input level through Windows 7 down to 2-3. That said, not hearing any distortion issues. Also the input attenuator makes a big db jump towards the high end which is too hot for the device.

That’s disappointing. My desire is to have sufficient headphone monitoring level while rerecording, so it’s a balancing act finding the sweet spot before the level leaps into the stratosphere. LEDs a bit overly bright.

So, for the time being I’m keeping it.

I am on my second one of these. I bought it to record on Garageband with an Ampex 435 Cardoid condensor mic. When I turned on the Phantom power supply and turned the level up to where I got a green signal indicator I got a horrid high pitched noise.

This was coming from the headphone monitor output before it got to the computer but it was quite audible there too. To be sure it was not the mic I plugged it into the XLR input of my Canon XA10 and it sounded fine.

I also plugged a dynamic mic into the adapter (with no phantom power needed) and it worked fine. So I called B &H and arranged a return which they were happy to do and I opted for an exchange. I asked them to check it before sending which they said was not possible because it gets pulled off a warehouse shelf.

So the new one arrives and the same issue is there. Not quite as bad, but still there. I thought I could work with it but I can’t so I’m stuck with it because I waited longer than the 15 day limit on returning it.

If you are pondering buying this I suggest going to the store and testing it with your mic of choice to save yourself the aggravation I had.

I got this audio interface to pair with the Rode Podcaster mic so I could use it for zoom meetings. Listening back to the audio interface, even with the mic gain lowered all the way and the microphone unplugged, there’s just a completely audible noise level that’s very obvious, no matter which computer or USB port I use.

I thought I just had a bad copy, so I RMA’d it and got a replacement, but I still have the issue in the new copy. In contrast, using a Zoom F6 in the same USB ports gives me an inky, inaudible noise floor.

If you’re using a really hot microphone, this could work because you could set the mic gain low and lower the gain on your computer to suppress the noise, but honestly I just don’t think this has good preamps, despite what a lot of the reviews said.

I bought this mic for recording Quena & Zampona at home, so close miking to minimise environmental noises. For this application it’s great and it’s presence boost really enhances these flutes tone very nicely indeed, sounds amazing even with no EQ.

My audio interface has fairly limited gain range & the SM57 signal level is easily within that range for this application. I don’t currently have any need for more distant miking. Being a dynamic mic the output is low compared to condenser mics which are internally amplified & therefore lend themselves to distance miking without additional amplification.

I see some negative comments by people who bought the wrong mic for their distance miking application. This can be overcome simply by buying a small inline phantom powered mic amplifier that plugs directly into the base of a dynamic mic.

There are several brands available. As these amps are right at the mic, there is zero additional noise before amplification, making the amplified signal as clean & strong as much more expensive condenser mics.

This is definitely the way to go if you need more gain and a great way to go for vocals on a tight budget.

A friend of mine and I have been writing original songs and we didn’t have a way to record, so we dug out the old cassette tape Tascam 6 track recorder and headed to Sam Ash. The guy at the microphone deck was great! Very informed and very helpful.

I explained that we’re recording in a big echoey warehouse and he immediately suggested the SM57 dynamic mic cause it’s unidirectional and will help to somewhat isolate the instrument in an open setting while picking up a strong, solid signal.

It worked perfect and sounded great, just like he said it would. I’m so satisfied that I will be buying a couple more soon, they are extremely affordable for the quality! Thanks again Sam Ash, I’m always a satisfied customer, every time!.

As a high-school musician on a budget, searching for microphones became a tedious and frankly pointless task; every microphone of interest was too expensive. Enter the Shure SM57. It’s cheap, and it’s fantastic.

So far, I’ve used it on vocals, acoustic and electric guitar, and drums (snare and kick). It provides a natural and punchy sound that caters well to any music style. As a close mic, it performs beautifully; and with a more sensitive room mic, it really shines.

#sweepstakes.

This device works as advertised, sought of. I say that because even though it does work, it also produces a lot of background hiss. The audio is not clean and it is low, even when you adjust the gain levels.

I tested two mics on this device, a Sony ECM-77B Lapel mic and a ElectroVoice RE-50 Mic. In both cases the audio was low and there was a noticeable hiss in the background even after adjusting the gain settings.

I then tested the same mics on the Shure X2u and the audio was pristine. Better to spend the money on a Shure X2u for good clean broadcast quality audio. I would not recommend this Polsen.

Pro’s Well made all metal housing. Everything works as advertised. Easy to setup and easy to use (download and install the drivers from Behringer 1st). I’m on PC running windows 10. Signal quality and adjustability has been good for what I have done so far.

electric guitar, acoustic guitar and vocals. Working fine with my DAW (Reaper) Con’s The instruction booklet is terrible. Fortunately this unit is popular and there are many instructional video’s online.

Summary: Great features and quality for the price. I got the 204 (2in 4out) because I wanted the dedicated midi in/out (on the back of this unit) so I could connect electronic drums into the daw or drum machine and then back to the drum kit (so I can utilise sound library’s).

If you dont need that feature then you might save some $ by getting the 202 (2in 2out).

I had hoped that this XLR to USB cable would hold me over until I bought an audio interface, but no such luck. When I tested it I had to raise the volume level to 100 (in Windows 7 right click on the volume icon in the bottom right corner, Recording Devices, right click Microphone “USB audio device”, Properties, “Levels” tab, move the slider to the right) to make myself somewhat audible, but that in turn caused excessive white noise.

Just imagine yourself talking and a TV producing white noise at max volume, and that’s what you can expect to hear with this cable. I used a Shure SM57 microphone to test the cable. The SM57 is a dynamic microphone and in the XLR to USB product description it does say to use a dynamic microphone.

What makes things worse is that the product is not sold by Walmart and as a result I have to follow AGPtek’s return policy. Their return policy doesn’t seem to have a policy for returning functioning but terrible products.

This cable is a great tool for any professional project. It is a simple plug and play from the microphone to the computer..

This works well for a patch to use a mic through your computer to speakers or for the Wireless Portable Speaker units that have a USB input.

I normally don’t write reviews but this interface’s drivers and mix software is so bad I thought I might save someone else from having to deal with it. I used it in windows 10. As of 11/21 in order to get the adat inputs to work properly and monitor through the mixer you need to change the sample rate to another rate and back to the one you’re using after powering up (every time).

I learned this after doing some research and apparently this has been a know bug for years. To add insult to injury the real-time mix/monitoring SW is terrible. Its divided into mixes per output pairs, which is fine/workable, but the solo is global and mutes all other busses.

So, if for example, you want only mic one on Adat 3/4 you’d have to mute or turn down every other channel instead of just soloing the channel you want and all faders are up by default. Maybe there’s a shortcut but I had to much to do to find it.

Also there’s no way to save monitor mixes. Also if the mixer is active I think you have to route the HW channels to the logical Adat channels going to the DAW rather through the mix SW then access them directly from the driver unless you bypass the mix software all together loosing no latency input monitoring which makes the solo implementation all the more worse.

I’m not sure I’m describing this properly but it was arcane and annoying. Also, there’s plenty of zipper noise pulling down the bus output faders. It’s pure frustration. The pres and build quality are fine and it comes with some nice bundled sw that I had no use for but would come in handy if you’re starting from zero.

I’d stay away from this box until presonus redesigns the SW. There are decades older options with better functionality and whatever money you’re saving isn’t worth it. Something like: “Presonus is our day job.

Designed by musicians” is proclaimed under the stock photos on the the box. It might be good for them to hire some engineers to work the bugs out.

Overall: I’ve been using this interface for around 3 years now and have never experienced what the only other review (at the time of writing) is talking about with “audio dropping out” and having to unplug it and plug it back in, so not sure who “everyone” is that’s complaining about this.

Sounds like user-error to me, which seems to be a huge problem with user reviews at large – but I digress. For the price point, it’s a decent interface. Anecdotally, the XMAX preamps do impart a somewhat sterile quality in comparison to my much cheaper and smaller SSL 2+.

I have not used the scientific method to back this claim up quite yet, but thought it would be worth mentioning that to my ears there is something about the preamp’s character that I don’t love. Some complaints I have are that you cant manually switch the inputs to LINE mode, you have to insert a TRS cable to do so.

Also, I cannot personally figure out if there is a way to make outputs 1 and 2 separate from the main outs. As far as I can tell, there is no way to do this, so you’re essentially down 2 outs for a total of 6 when you look at it like that (there’s 2 headphone mix outs on the front already).

I spent far too much time spelunking the internet for this information to no avail. This leads me to my final and perhaps most pertinent complaint – the customer support from PreSonus. That is to say, it appears to be non-existent, or at least it did when I tried to contact them via phone for weeks in hopes of finding out whether or not it’s possible to route signals that are NOT identical to the main outs to outputs 1 and 2.

To be fair, this was over a year ago, so hopefully something has changed since then. Their support forums also appeared to be largely abandoned by anyone but confused customers. What dey got goin’ on over dere in baton rouge, them?.

I have been researching this unit since last year, and it works great on a late 2012 iMac (Thunderbolt 1, i7, 16GB RAM, Fusion Drive), Catalina (10. 15. 7) and Logic Pro (10. 6. 1). You need an Apple Branded Thunderbolt Adapter for older Macs.

The unit has no Thunderbolt or USB cables included. Mac with Thunderbolt 1 or 2 you need an Apple Branded Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 (and 1) Adapter. The Apple adapters are bi-directional, and necessary for the Quantum to function.

You will also need a Thunderbolt 2 cable. I would recommend you get an Apple Branded Thunderbolt Cable as well. This is what I did. I followed the directions from the Presonus website and set up was easy.

The Quantum 2626 basically worked as a drop in replacement for my MOTU 828 mkII. It sounds just as good as the 828 with nearly zero latency (none that I can detect anyway). One of the greatest things about this unit is that it does not have any DSP.

What you hear in Logic as you record is what you get, no need to adjust the playback volume. This is something that I always struggle with on the 828 and the MOTU drivers. I hope this unit lasts, because it is off to a great start and that’s important because this is a bridge (to a newer Mac) unit for me.

The fact that this can run on the last version of a Mac that just barely supports Catalina, means that it has potential way into the future. I am not sure about the Quantum’s M1 support, but my guess is that it is already available or will be soon.

Gave me great sound with a dynamic mike in my PC. The mike didn’t work with the 3.5 mm plug

Cool for laptop not really compatible w/ipad.