Thoughts on "Lexicon Alpha Desktop Recording Studio" ?

Hey guys, I need to buy an audio interface for a second room and I'm wondering if any of you either have experience with this interface ("Lexicon Alpha Desktop Recording Studio"), or can recommend some other model. I already have the Scarlett 2i2 in my main "studio" room, and it's fantastic. I'll continue to do most of my recording on the Scarlett. My requirements for this 2nd interface are: - As dirt cheap as possible - Good native ASIO drivers for live latency usage - Output to quarter or eighth TS jack (which will go to normal computer speakers) - Headphone jack All I'm going to do in this second room is practice the piano pretty much. I have a MIDI keyboard with a USB out, so no MIDI-IN is required for the new interface. Friggin "Asio4All" and my mobo soundcard have been crackling a lot no matter what settings I use (I'm on an i7 machine with no apps running and 24gb ram). All I want is low latency with no crackle... to be used with 1 piano VSTi and 1 instance of reaverb (yes, clicked the ZZ and LZ boxes or whatever). So basically, I don't need the preamps to sound perfect, or to find a high quality interface to compete with the Scarlett I already have. I just need something that will let me practice piano. Thoughts? Thank you!

Hey Mikey I had one of these for quite some time. Loved it. Quite surprised at the warmth and airy clarity it somehow added to anything I put through it. The only reason I replaced it was because I had severe GAS and bought an 18i20 that I didn't actually need. Hindsight being 20/20 I'd probably have stuck with the Alpha, but in the end I settled on a used Omega. Still have the 18i20. Must take some pics and get it listed.... but I digress. I was using it on Win7, No issues at all. Recommended.

Haha "GAS"? Is that like "gear faggotry"? (disclaimer: love gays... the term is just funny) Thanks for the input. I'm looking for cheap phantom power supplies in case I want to use my condenser on this in the future ... but basically it looks pretty sweet!

I think you should get a second 2i2. The Lexicon stuff is as old as original mbox and it wasn't high end back then.

G.A.S. = Gear Acquisition Syndrome....nothing biased about the term.... :confused:

Hmmm okay thanks guys. What about the "M-Audio MobilePre"? It's on amazon for around the same price as the Lexicon plus a phantom power supply.

Don't get anything M-Audio except Fast-Track Ultra, Profire 610, 2626 or the newer models. Mobile pre is OLD OLD OLD junk. Go with Focusrite. EDIT - unless you're using a Windows XP system then maybe those are OK. Still, sound quality and stability of interfaces improved a lot around 2008.

Nah I'm on a newish i7/Win7... I know you're right, and I definitely would prefer a second Scarlett. I'm just a cheap, cheap bastard, lol Off to craigslist!

What about this thing? It seems new-ish. (M-Audio M-Track Two-Channel USB Audio Interface)

Yeah that looks pretty good. First released in Nov 2014 and it comes with a few Waves plugins as a bonus. Only downside I see is that it's max sample rate is 48kHz.