Comments about TASCAM US-1641 USB 2.0 Audio/MIDI Computer Interface:

I purchased the US-1641 to upgrade my home studio from the Tascam US-428 which has only 6 inputs (2 XLR, 2 Line/Guitar, 2 S/PDIF). I considered purchasing several other interfaces (PreSonus, Alesis, DigiDesign) but decided upon the US-1641 as a good compromise of price for features.

I had several reservations when considering the US-1641: latency, USB interface, and Windows Vista compatibility. Latency had been a problem with the US-428 but this problem seems to have completely disappeared with the US-1641. Due to mixed experiences in the past, I was concerned that a USB 2.0 interface wouldn't perform as well as a comparable Firewire interface but again, the US-1641 exceeded my expectations. I made sure to use the latest version drivers (from Tascam’s website) and the US-1641 installed very smoothly.

The sound quality is excellent. The preamps seem to be transparent and the unit as a whole is very quiet. Using an AKG Perception 200, vocals are very clear and present and my piano is very crisp and bright.

Finally, the US-1641 is very user friendly. Using the included Cubase LE, I simply added a bus for each channel and assigned the buses to tracks. It just works, not many products can say that.

Overall, Tascam has hit a homerun: it is a bargain, very user friendly, and works exactly as advertised.