Tested Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 (3rd) vs Behringer UMC204HD

Hi,

I've bought both sound interfaces to test them side by side with several VST (Pianoteq and tons of Kontakt instruments).

No mic/line recordings, only VST.

The first noticeable thing when switched on and cranked up the volume knob is how quiet the 4i4 (3rd generation) is compared to the 204HD, havin the latter some "emptiness" noise.

While playing anything at quite high volume (not what I'd usually be doing) the emptiness noise is no longer to be perceived, which make both interfaces even.

On Pianoteq I was perfectly able to play anything at max. poliphony without hearing any crackles or interruptions and got 1.5ms latency @ 44.1k and 64 samples in both cases.

It drew my attention that the 204 at 192k and 256 samples gave me a latency of 1.3 and still played like charm no issues whatsoever while the 4i4 wasn't able to handle 192k at all, no matter what the buffer was, I couldn´t hear anything coming out unless I went down to 96k

I wonder what your reading guys is, especially the experts in sound interfaces...

As with sampled pianos on Kontakt they both behaved very similarly, except the 204 was giving 2ms less of latency in all comparisons while keeping buffer size and sample rate the same.

Last and not least, I was trying to find something to justify the big gap in price since the 4i4 is more than twice as expensive as the 204 so I focused on quality of sound, paid attention while playing through the one and through the other  but couldn't really appreciate any difference in sound, neither on PTQ nor on Kontakt pianos...

Only sometimes I had the feeling that the 4i4 sounded a bit flatter and clearer, but it was very difficul to trust that feeling when swapped over to the 204 so I guess it was sort of psychological self convincing trick.

Is anyone able to tell whether there really should be a difference or not in this regard?

Warm regards,
David