Questions & Answers

Please add circuitry to the io44 to make it reject ground loop humming and RF interference

+2 votes
880 views
asked Mar 25, 2022 in Recording Interface Series Feature Requests by bradleyerickson (140 points)

I bought your Revelator io44 to replace my FocusRite Scarlett 2i2 in order to simplify my equipment setup (remove the mixer I used to add EQ and reverb and use the EQ and reverb built into the io44). However, in doing so, my mic cable seems to be acting like an antenna and there is a 60hz buzz present except when I touch the casing of my SM58 microphone. I never had this problem with my FocusRite Scarlett. Now I'm spending all kinds of time and money trying to figure out how to solve this problem. Ground lifts. Ground isolation tranformers. Different cables. You name it. So, just to try to simplify my setup and get built-in effects is costing me a lot of time and money. Here's where the feature request comes in. The FocusRite Scarlett, just like the io44, is a bus-powered audio interface. But they obviously have better circuitry in terms of defeating ground loop or other RF noise problems. Because when I use that interface, my signal is completely clean. Please have your engineers investigate WHY the Scarlett is so clean and quiet on a system such as mine and the io44 isn't. What can you add to your next version of this otherwise wonderful interface to make the sound clean, even in the presence of a ground loop, RF interference, or whatever? It is definitely possible because FocusRite achieved it with the Scarlett interface. Was it your effort to make the Revelator io44 small that you sacrificed a proper power supply or isolation circuitry? I'd much rather have my interface be a little bigger and even cost a little more if I know I'm not going to have a noisy unusable signal. Please take this request seriously. You have a potentially amazing product. I'm sure there are others who don't have this problem, but you could potentially improve your product to work great on a system such as mine. Thanks for your time! Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for me.

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