Focusrite Clarett 2Pre USB

I received this unit from @Armaegis a long time ago. Being as it may I only recently opened the box. It's been incredibly busy at work with all this SARS 2.0 issues and so on.

However, I'll do my best to review this unit. In many cases I start by listening the unit and then proceed to capture random measurements. This time I did it backwards. I started taking measurements first. I also took pictures. But I'll upload those some other day.

I only measured the balanced line-outs 1 and 2 out of 4. I measured @ 96 kHz sampling rate. I did a quick THD test with 44, 48 and 88 as well and saw no big difference. That said I could not get 176.4 and 192 to work using ASIO + REW. I will check if that works later when I listen through the headphone output at some later point in time.

Balanced full scale in this unit seems to correspond to 6.22 Vrms, and so this will be 0 dBFS which in the plots that will follow is dBrA (referenced to 6.22 Vrms).

NOTE: If the images are not very readable, click on them to expand.

THD characterization at 4 Vrms are shown below:



We get THD+N of 105 dB (A-weighted) with 3rd harmonic slightly dominating the 2nd harmonic. Note also the delta-sigma modulated noise is effectively suppressed above fs/2 = 48 kHz.

Here is the THD+N vs Vout characterization:



At 4 Vrms (-3.83 dBFS) we get 0.00057% (-104.9 dB) THD+N (A-weighted).

This is close to the minimum THD+N for this device. At full scale, THD likely dominates and increases since the system may start to approach clipping.

Here is the IMD SMPTE vs Vout characterization:



It is worth nothing that IMD SMPTE minimum of -100 dB is reached around -15 dBFS which corresponds to about 1 Vrms. At 4 Vrms the IMD SMPTE increases to about -94.6 dB as shown in the monitor above. From -30 dBFS and on, IMD SMPTE is below 90 dB, which as far as I know is fairly reasonable.

IMD characterization at 4 Vrms is shown below:



This test is done with two tones @ 60 Hz and 7 kHz respectively. It is interesting to note that the IMD around 7 kHz is not symmetrical. Not sure why that is, but the levels are low enough to be of no concern.

Here is a multitone test:



While I have seen better measurements in the interwebz, this device seems fairly competitive given the features it packs. This is not just a DAC, or an Amp. This system carries 4 outputs, a headphone amp, and it can record both through
a phantom voltage assisted mic pre-amps, or straight line inputs. All of which I have not characterized or tested.

Unlike my 2i2 gen 1, this system is not just solely usb powered. It's got it's own wall wart which means it is not nearly as underpowered and is expected to provide much better drive and overall performance. The system seems much better build and solid as well.

For reference, here are the manufacturer's specs:
https://focusrite.com/en/usb-c-audio-interface/clarett-usb/clarett-2pre-usb
They claim THD+N of 0.00075% for their line outputs, which they clearly meet.

How does it sound? I don't know yet. I'll check it out later.

 

Sorry about that mate. I'll do some listening + measurements, and then it will go back safe and sound.

BTW, did you have any issues with 178 and 192 kHz? Are you using a Mac or a Windoze machine?

 

It took a while to get the drivers in correctly, but I finally go the headphone output to work with my XPS13. Some notes:

1) Install the drivers with the device powered off.
2) If the drivers installed incorrectly, remove and install again.
3) Control of this device is fully under "Focusrite Control". Turn on Montior 1+2 to get HP out. Pressing mute and unmute might be needed. It is unfortunately not a very intuitive interface for me. But it works, so who cares.

As far as audio quality, Wow!

This is pretty darn resolving relative to the 2i2. I'm going through my music and I'm linking what I'm hearing quite a bit! This Clarett obviously has way more headroom and it shows. This is awesome! HD600's shine through this thing.

It is obvious that the noise floor and distortion are lower here. There is a lot less fussiness.

Some albums going through evaluation:

Mexican Contemporary Pop


80's UK Pop


Dream Pop

 

Got a bit more motivated here.

Here is THD+N (A-weighted) for the headphone output. Note dBrA is relative to full scale, so it is equivalent to dBFS. The headphone output can swing about 4.8 Vrms maximum (which is 0 dBFS or dBrA in the plot below), so a little less than the Line-Outs where full scale is relative to 6.22 Vrms. Note headphone out is single ended, while the previous Line Out measurements were done balanced.


<Click on the image to zoom into it>

For comparison purposes, note the sweep plot starts at -70 dBFS instead of -60 dBFS (most sweeps including the one I did for this device at the Line-Outs start at -60 dBFS. Sorry, it was late - might correct the plot later today). The sweep indicates a fairly decent performance in the noise dominated region. This correlates well with what I heard.

Note the headphone driver will get current starved with 33 ohms (-15 dBrA here corresponds to about 0.85 Vrms), so best to use high impedance cans with these to get the most out of it. HD600s pairs nicely (my ears tell me so). With 300 ohms, the system will be able to hit 0.0008% THD+N around 2.76 Vrms (a little below full scale). This is what Focusrite advertises out of the HP output.

Again, bottom line, use high impedance cans to get the best out of the headphone monitor.

 

How does it compare to the Lyra? Did you have the RME?

 

The PREs are in the 2.7k buck range at least.

At that price point, other players such as RME and Prism start to look pretty awesome.

 

Yeah. driver stability seems to be a big issue across the board. Glad to hear RME doesn't suffer from that.

The 2i2 Gen 1 is pretty stable too. But it's fairly outdated and performance is very entry level. The price is right for a practical solution though.

Like you, I value form factor a lot. I really like highly integrated solutions.

 

Some pictures (relative to the 2i2 gen1):