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Focusrite Clarett 8Pre vs Focusrite Clarett 8PreX

Product Comparison: Focusrite Clarett 8Pre vs Focusrite Clarett 8PreX

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Focusrite Clarett 8Pre

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Focusrite Clarett 8PreX

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General Specifications

Brand

Focusrite

Model

Clarett 8Pre

Clarett 8PreX

Origin

China

About the Product

Excellent sound is the quality Clarett owners love most. With up to 119dB dynamic range, superbly low noise, precision 24/192 conversion and eight specially-designed mic preamps with a unique analogue “Air” effect, Clarett 8Pre is the Thunderbolt audio interface that simply sounds great, easily out-performing others in its class and beyond. Meanwhile, its astonishing 1.67ms round-trip latency* simplifies your workflow and lets you use your favourite plug-ins in real time. Roll over to magnify

Excellent sound is the quality Clarett owners love most. With up to 119dB dynamic range, superbly low noise, precision 24/192 conversion and eight specially-designed mic preamps with a unique analogue “Air” effect, Clarett 8PreX is the Thunderbolt audio interface that simply sounds great, easily out-performing other interfaces in its class and beyond. Meanwhile, its astonishing 1.67ms round-trip latency* simplifies your workflow and lets you use your favourite plug-ins in real time.

Key Specs

Form Factor

Rackmount

Control Interfaces

XLR or 1/4" Combo, SPDIF, Optical

1/4" TRS, XLR or 1/4" Combo, SPDIF, Optical, MIDI, Word Clock

A/D Resolution

24bit/192kHz

Number of Preamps

Simultaneous I/O

18/20

26/28

Form Factor
Number of Preamps

What customers say about "Key Specs"

Focusrite Clarett 8Pre

I got this because my Digi002 rack was a bit long in the tooth and I just upgraded to a new system with Thunderbolt on an iMac. The fidelity improvement and lowered session latency via thunderbolt justified the upgrade, but the ease of use was astounding.
This new Clarett 8pre Thunderbolt is awesome. I could have probably got by with a 4pre, but I wanted to rack mount it.
Thunderbolt interfaces are the future. The clarity on this thing is amazing. Prior to this i had a Saffire Pro40, which was great and i thought had great clarity. I feel my mixers are more clear since using this interface. It really is a great pristine sounding unit. I'd highly recommend.
The clarity that you get with options like the Air feature is really great. Of course when running Thunderbolt latency is almost none. Great work Focusrite!
The interface is well built and very solid. The preamps sound amazing and has great versatility.

Focusrite Clarett 8PreX

Great interface! Perfect for recording live drums, guitars, vocals exc. I've had mine for two years now and the thing is a rock. Solid, dependable and good looking in the rack. Great pre-amps and the free plug-ins RULE! It was very easy to install and it is my go to for all of my recordings.
This interface sounds great and is easy to use. I had an issue with my unit and I called Focusrite, whose customer service was spectacular.
The simple fact you have separate XLR, Instrument and Line inputs is such a blessing for my setup. That simple fact alone allows for less hassle when working on tracking in a home environment.
Short and simple it works as advertised. I am a big fan of focusrite products I had the 18i20 and it worked superbly almost no latency to speak of. The Clarett is a step up with more expandability, works flawlessly with my system.
This interface is an incredible value. I use an Apogee Duet 2 in my home studio and wanted a mobile solution for recording my band at gigs and rehearsals. This interface is very easy to use. The software is easy to understand. I have had no issues with the drivers (something I can't say for Apogee).

Size & Weight

Height

1.73 in.

3.46 in.

Width

19 in.

Depth

11.46 in.

11.34 in.

Weight

9.59 lbs.

12.13 lbs.

What customers say about "Size & Weight"

Focusrite Clarett 8Pre

But this thing just looks implausibly big for gigging with it. Granted the weight of my previous focusrite saffire pro dip 24 is almost exactly the same to a fraction of an ounce.
The fact is, the 2pre is thinner, but practically a spitting image of my previous firewire interface (see image) which was already bulky enough.
This is easily a step up. I still have the Duet 2 for portability but that is all.

Focusrite Clarett 8PreX

Granted the weight of my previous focusrite saffire pro dip 24 is almost exactly the same to a fraction of an ounce.
This is easily a step up. I still have the Duet 2 for portability but that is all.
If you are unaware, the ISA series is famous from their Forte large format consoles. To me, the only way to record with this interface is to use the Air function.

Interfaces

Analog Inputs

8 x XLR-1/4" combo

2 x 1/4" (line in), 8 x 1/4" (line in), 8 x XLR (mic input)

Analog Outputs

8 x 1/4" (line out), 2 x 1/4" (monitor out)

Digital Inputs

Optical, SPDIF, USB

2 x OPTICAL, 2 x SPDIF, Word Clock, Thunderbolt

Digital Outputs

Optical, SPDIF, Word Clock Out

2 x OPTICAL, 2 x SPDIF, Word Clock

MIDI I/O

In/Out

What customers say about "Interfaces"

Focusrite Clarett 8Pre

Thunderbolt is the only way to go. Goodbye slow USB. And the preamps are crystal clear with lots of headroom.
Excited to be able to expand this to 16 inputs. Beautiful preamps!
The 8Pre uses combi jacks for mic/line input, while the 8Pre X has separate XLRs for mic in and 1/4" for line. The 8Pre has a word clock input for digital sync; the 8Pre X adds word clock out.
The front of the quite hefty half/rack sized interface has combo xlr/1/4" inputs with gain knobs surrounded by clip indicator leds.
Plus you get an extra headphone output that's assignable, so that in addition to the four 1/4" outputs on the back (same as the 2 Pre) you can also use the 2nd headphone as another stereo out. Plus RCA S/PDIFs? Trust me, get the 4Pre.

Focusrite Clarett 8PreX

The front of the quite hefty half/rack sized interface has combo xlr/1/4" inputs with gain knobs surrounded by clip indicator leds.
The ADAT ports on the back are extremely flimsy. Both optical port shutter doors broke. I'm trying to decide if I want to tape the optic cables in place or if I want to be inconvenienced by sending the whole unit back.
The unit does accept an external word clock, but I found no need for one. It clocks much better than other interfaces I have had, especially at higher sample rates. And normally when connecting multiple units together, the clocking is all done through the optical ports.
The thunderbolt connection provides low latency recording -- it's basically realtime, as far as I can tell.
The port that looks like thunderbolt2 on that card is in fact a mini displayport IN and will not work.

Features

Extras

Precision Digital Conversion, Easy Access, Included software, Accessible Metering and Monitoring, Enough Channels for the Band

Precision Digital Conversion, Included software, Focusrite Control software to easily configure your monitoring and routing setups, Accessible Metering and Monitoring, Exceptional I/O capability

Power Supply

AC adapter

Phantom Power

Yes

Bus Powered

OS Requirements - Mac

Mac OS 10.9/10.10/10.11

10.7.5 and higher

OS Requirements - PC

Windows 8.1/10

Windows 7 SP1/8/8.1/10

Phantom Power
Bus Powered

What customers say about "Features"

Focusrite Clarett 8Pre

The new Focusrite Control software is lot easier to use than the old Focusrite Mix Control I had been using.
Low latency monitoring is fantastic for a DAW like pro tools that uses very heavy plugins. So overall, this audio interface is AMAZING! I would recommend to anyone that wants a thunderbolt audio interface!
Great piece of equipment; the software (included) is great as a stand alone, especially if your recording live instruments. And you can't beat Sweetwater's support and personalized service!
I am impressed with what Focusrite is doing. This is a solid product. I don't want to fluff anything here, if you are in this price range check the Clarett 8pre out.
The control software is easy to configure and it came with a couple of plugins I haven't used yet.

Focusrite Clarett 8PreX

The built-in phantom power on every channel has proven to be a god send. Great sounding audio was never so easy and convenient.
I love that all the cords run from the back of the unit but you still have the two instrument inputs on the front. The added air feature is perfect for certain instances, but is not always wanted.
Windows drivers were released for the Clarett line just last month and I decided to take the dive. Just wanted to let PC users that are skeptical know that it works great! Super low latency / Focusrite Control software works perfectly.
Love the low latency input monitoring. It allows me to get great headphone mixes right away, so I can hear exactly what I'm doing at the input stage.
The only thing I miss is the halo lighting around the gain knobs. My Scarlett 2i2 has them and I love them, but even that is not enough for me to rank this interface any lower than a 5.0!

Warranty / Certifications

Manufacturer Warranty

2 year(s)

Certifications

Other Information

Manufacturer

Link

Manual

Download