Recommended Audio Interfaces

Many audio interfaces are just too slow to work well with JackTrip. We recommend external USB or Thunderbolt interfaces released within the past few years for the best quality, low latency and glitch-free sound.

If you live within the United States, we strongly recommend contacting a Sweetwater sales representative to help. They are well trained to match your needs with the best audio gear available.

Always use analog headphones plugged into your interface via a 3.5mm, 1/4" or XLR jack. Every digital headset (USB or gaming) we have ever tested is slower than snails and will not work well.

The audio interface built into your computer can work OK on Mac and Linux computers, but will always give poor results on Windows. Windows computers bundle low quality audio chips that don't support modern standards. Windows users also require ASIO drivers for low-latency sound (please see more about ASIO here). 

When you are ready to upgrade to better sound, you can’t go wrong with a Focusrite Scarlett external USB device, with the 2i2 model being a reference that most others are compared to. Their solo model is good enough for most people who don’t need the extra inputs. Sweetwater also offers some Scarlett bundles.

A few other models that we have thoroughly tested and recommend include:

It's likely that other interfaces in the same series as these would also work well.

A few models that we know do not work well include:

  • Realtek ASIO (very unstable drivers)
  • Steinberg Generic Low-latency (very unstable drivers)
  • Mackie ProFx6 (bad drivers / sample rate problems)
  • Focusrite Saffire*
  • Roland TD-07*

* Reported by users with 1.x; should be re-validated with 2.x

+ Requires manual buffer size adjustment on Windows