# Clarett 8PreX by Focusrite – a Thunderbolt Audio Interface Review



## Thorsten Meyer (Jun 29, 2019)

*Clarett 8PreX by Focusrite – a Thunderbolt Audio Interface Review*
https://www.strongmocha.com/2019/06/19/clarett-8prex-a-thunderbolt-audio-interface-review/

*Clarett 8PreX is Focusrite’s Flagship Thunderbolt Audio Interface*
With the Clarett 8PreX Focusrite offers an audio interface with Thunderbolt support and high quality at an attractive price tag. In conjunction with the Focusrite Control application, you now have a highly versatile and professional solution for routing high-quality audio to and from your computer recording system with extremely low latency.






Clarett 8PreX and Clarett 8Pre USB
The flagship Clarett 8PreX offers 26 inputs and 28 outputs. 8PreX is your stationary audio interface, ideal for larger studios. Focusrite did send a review unit with no strings attached.





The Clarett 8PreX as an audio interface connects microphones, instruments, line-level audio signals and digital audio signals to a MAC or PC through the computer’s Thunderbolt port. Physical inputs signals are routed to your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and the outputs from the DAW are configured as the unit’s physical outputs.

*Installation*
On a MAC the installation is easy, you need to install the Focusrite software tool, reboot your MAC and the device works with your MAC computer. There are no Thunderbolt cables in the box. You need to purchase it if you do not own one already. On latest iMac’s from 2019, the Thunderbolt 3 Interface need to be adapted. The Thunderbolt does not daisy chain, which would be nice if you need more interface and IOs to connect. The Clarett 8PreX concurrently accommodates 26 inputs and 28 outputs. The Clarett 8PreX also manages multichannel digital audio in ADAT optical format – sixteen channels at 44.1/48 kHz sample rate, eight at 88.2/96 kHz or four at 176.4/192 kHz. 0S/PDIF I/O support is included.





*Sound*
Clarett 8PreX, one of Focusrite professional Thunderbolt audio interfaces including high-quality Clarett analog pre-amplifiers with the novel AIR function.

Clarett 8PreX offers an excellent sounding interface with eight mic preamps eight outputs. The unit supports a 119dB dynamic range, low noise, precision 24-bit/192kHz conversion and eight uniquely created mic preamps with a unique analog Air effect. The used Preamps are fabulous and very clean and do not add any character. The unit offers a 1.67 ms round-trip latency. The latency was never an issue. This is a very low latency to support monitoring setups, not before achievable.

*Preamps*
As mentioned one or two times the preamp sounds fantastic, why is that important you ask? With other budget audio interfaces, you could have the issue that the preamps are less clear or they run into issues with increased gain. The sound quality of the high-end converters in this unit is absolutely surprisingly impressive. The 119 DB of dynamic range blows pretty much everything else in its price range out the water. The quality of the stereo output of the audio interface is as good as anything I’ve heard. The quality of the converters on the Clarett 8PreX is just absolutely stunning you can certainly hear it.


Full Review on StrongMocha:

*Clarett 8PreX by Focusrite – a Thunderbolt Audio Interface Review*
*https://www.strongmocha.com/2019/06/19/clarett-8prex-a-thunderbolt-audio-interface-review/*


----------

