Re: [AUDITORY] Audio card for mac

Hi Julia,

Are you using headphones of free field? If headphones, probably the biggest issue would be the headphone output and its ability to drive high impedance headphones that are often used in psychoacoustics. Also diver latency is pretty important if you need good synchronisation (ie. for ERPs) or you are interested in reaction times. If you don’t need many output channels, I’d say the MOTU M2 is a good choice if you are on a budget. It’s quite stable, works well with Apple Silicon and has a good headphone amp. Check out a review by Julian Krause on YT, he has great technical insight and provides independent performance measurements (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3ednXYd1pA).

That being said, if budget allows, I’d personally go with the RME BabyFace or UCX II though. We’re using UCX II in our lab and it works great. We use extra channels for talkback/intercom to talk to the participant. The DURec feature is great for recording the audio of an experiment without worrying about computer resources. And the TotalMix FX software can store full configurations as presets (including output volumes etc). It’s great if you’re running different experiments with different experimenters and interchanging setups.

I’m curious, why are your Fireface interfaces not compatible? RME is know for long-term support and their 20 year old interfaces work with new macs. Is it because of firewire? There are firewire-to-thunderbolt adapters, have you considered them?

Best,

Chris

Krzysztof Basiński, PhD
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory

anl.gumed.edu.pl

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
Division of Quality of Life Research
Medical University of Gdańsk

krzysztof.basinski@xxxxxxxxxxxx
zbnjz@xxxxxxxxxxxx
+48 58 349 1569
Tuwima 15, 80-210 Gdańsk

mug.edu.pl
farU.edu.pl/en

This e-mail and attachments to it may include information legally privileged. It is intended solely for the recipient. If you are not the recipient,please inform the sender accordingly and delete the e-mail with all attachments received. Copying and/or disseminating this e-mail and information included in the e-mail by unauthorised individuals is strictly prohibited. Your personal data is administered by Medical University of Gdańsk. Information on personal data processing is available at gumed.edu.pl/55839.html

On 28 Aug 2025, at 08:28, Picinali, Lorenzo <l.picinali@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hello Julia,

we also generally use RME and MOTU interfaces, but if you want a cheaper option which is anyway still quite good and reliable, we have successfully used interfaces from the Focusrite Scarlett range. You have plenty of options, and they are compatible with the Apple silicon computers.

Best
Lorenzo

--
Lorenzo Picinali
Professor in Spatial Acoustics and Immersive Audio
Dyson School of Design Engineering
Imperial College London
Dyson Building
Imperial College Road
South Kensington, SW7 2DB, London
E: l.picinali@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/l.picinali
https://www.axdesign.co.uk/
https://www.sonicom.eu/
From: AUDITORY - Research in Auditory Perception <AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf of Huyck, Julia <0000040b68901d31-dmarc-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: 27 August 2025 6:14 PM
To: AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [AUDITORY] Audio card for mac

Hello all,

I’m replacing my ancient lab computers. Previously I used Fireface sound cards but they are not compatible with my new iMacs and my budget is somewhat limited. Does anyone have any recommendations for high quality sound cards that will work with Experiment Builder and Matlab? Will the onboard sound card be sufficient for psychoacoustic research? My computer specs are: iMac with Retina 4.5K display: Apple M4 chip with 8-core CPU and 8-core GPU, 16GB, 512GB SSD

Thanks,
Julia

Julia Jones Huyck, Ph.D. (she/her)
330-672-0249 (office)
330-244-6134 (mobile)
Coordinator, Northeast Ohio Au.D. Consortium
Associate Professor, Speech Pathology and Audiology Program
School of Health Sciences | College of Education, Health, & Human Services
Kent State University

Hearing Research Group, Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED)

Perception, Learning and Individual Differences (PLAID) lab
330-672-2415 | plaidlab@xxxxxxxxx