Sound Devices MixPre-3 II

The MixPre-3 II is hands down the best audio interface I’ve ever used. I came from the Volcaster-1, and I had no idea what I was missing until I got this. I haven’t even used it as a field recorder yet, just as a USB interface, but even in that role, it’s absolutely flawless.

I have it hooked up to a Sennheiser MKH-50 for work and a Shure SM7DB for gaming, and it just makes both mics sound ten times better. The preamps are insanely clean, and the overall sound is just on another level. I also got some high-quality cables from World’s Best Cables, but honestly, none of this would even matter without the MixPre-3 II—it’s the heart of the whole setup.

It also just works. No messing around, no troubleshooting, no fighting with settings. I switch between Mac for work and Windows for gaming, and everything runs smoothly on both. I can’t even count how many interfaces I’ve tried that claimed to be “plug and play” but weren’t. This actually is.

I don’t know why it took me so long to realise that this is the interface to get. I always thought of Sound Devices as a field recording brand, but honestly, they should market this thing as a USB interface first. If you’re looking for the best interface out there, don’t even bother with anything else. This is the one.

It sounds great ! So that's what matters - now from practical perspective I have 2 small issues : there s a compartiment for batteries : it's a mess - like you don't use it - so you store it somewhere but than you forget where - and you loose it. This is really not well thought. Also battery should be included - or we should have possibility to connect external power bank - but this is not well done at all.
Second the power button is a mess. It's the one thing I'm going to use the most - and it's hidden and difficult to use. Again zero thoughts on that in terms of ui. For the rest the product does it's job and you will be satisfied with the sound. Ah yes maybe last - the sd card slot also is not super well though - how to reach that...

I have used a lot of Sound Devices equipment in the past, all of them way more expensive. I have no quality issues with the MixPre-3 II. The sound quality is excellent as usual, the high dynamic range gives security and a very low noise. There are a lot of features on higher-end recorders, but this device offers the highest quality in a portable recorder, with a feature set that was considered top 10-15 years ago and it is absolutely tiny. So it is excellent for location music recording and for low-budget and documentary film work.

Important: check out the plugins, if you want to record 5 channels at once (3×XLR, 2×Aux 3.5mm) you will need to pay about 100$ more!