MOTU UltraLite-mk5 18x22 USB Audio Interface 3 for Mac, Windows and iOS with mixing and effects

This interface is great quality. It feels sturdy, metal, heavy. The sound quality is a significant step above my previous (Scarlett focusrite solo). The included software has a small but significant learning curve. Just spend a day getting used to it and you'll be fine.Onboard DSP works well. I love being able to eq and compress my audio before it reaches my daw.It has more IO than I'll ever use, probably, and it's fit into a relatively compact form factor.I was dubious about the OLED screen on the front before I bought this. Now that I've used it for a while, I can say the front screen isn't what you'll use for regular level monitoring. It's good for a quick eyeball, but for serious monitoring of levels you'll want the included software open on your computer, and/or use the daw. The OLED screen also has a screen saver to prevent burn in. We'll see how it looks after a few years, but for now it looks flawless.Overall I'm so happy with this interface. I probably won't ever need another one.

Cons: The included usb cables are a bit short.Pros: Everything else.Using this interface to listen through my studio monitors and headphones. I have a mic connected for calls and gaming. I run a long TRS interconnect across the room from the headphone out when I play my TD30, and latency is ~3ms at 32 sample host buffer (with no underruns, stable, clean audio).That still leaves me with another combo jack for mic/hi-z, 4 balanced line inputs for my electronic drums or other gear, 8 balanced line outputs, optical adat/toslink, coaxial spdif, midi in and out.Headphone amp sounds good, although I don't have high impedance or power hungry headphones. I no longer need to use equalizerAPO because there is EQ for outputs.CueMix5 is great, especially after a few big updates. I have yet to discover a way in which it functionally limits me. I can enable/disable and set any of the inputs/outputs as windows default, and route main computer audio to any output. Using this I can play through my studio monitors and headphones at the same time. I can stream without including my friends in voice chat or soundboard playback by using main out for obs and phones out for discord/soundboard. It has loopback/gate/compression/reverb/eq/panning/full mixer. Effects can be set to pre or post-send to usb host. The loopback feature is well thought out, and obsoletes the need for more finnicky and less feedback safe virtualcable solutions. Read the manual if you must, the internal and external routing capabilities are astounding for this form factor.The unit is externally powered and retains settings in memory, so I can use it without my computer being on. It can be turned off without being unplugged too.I have used monoprice unbalanced 3.5mm trs to dual 1/4" ts for aux input from phone or PC monitor, which is perhaps not ideal, but works.If you don't need AVB or motu's more versatile matrix routing and mixer, this interface is perhaps the best on the market, even now in 2025. Massive step up in quality and capability from my 2i2, which I promptly gave away.

The Ultralite mk5 is a really great device. Sound quality is great and the i/o and routing is very advanced, particularly for this price point. I had an issue with the headphone jack on the unit I bought from amazon. I reached out to Motu hoping it was something in the routing I was doing wrong, but they replied quickly and after confirming it was a hardware issue they sent me a replacement for free. My experience with some of the other audio manufacturers (UAD, RME, etc.) is they're very hesitant to admit anything could possibly be a hardware issue even when it's quite obvious. Also the latency is very low on my macbook pro and 2nd probably only to RME. If I had 1 slight complaint it's that cuemix 5 while advanced in routing capability, takes too many clicks and scrolling through screens to change things. I wish it was controllable via midi or ipad like you can do with RME. All in all I definitely recommend the unit and Motu as a company.