M-AudioM-Track Solo Review: Is it Still worth it in 2026?

Performance is where budget interfaces often disappoint, so I approached testing with realistic expectations. What I found was genuinely surprising for a $50 interface.

Preamp Performance: The Crystal Preamp delivers clean gain with minimal self-noise throughout most of its range. Recording vocals with a condenser mic, the results were usable and clear. However, there’s a quirk worth noting: the gain behavior between positions 9 and 10 isn’t linear. Moving from 9 to maximum produces a larger jump in volume than you’d expect. This caught me off guard initially, but once you know about it, you can work around it.

With dynamic microphones that need more gain (like the Shure SM7B), you’ll find yourself pushing closer to maximum. For gain-hungry mics, the M-Track Solo works but doesn’t leave much headroom. If you’re using low-output dynamic mics regularly, consider an interface with more gain on tap or a separate preamp.

For guitar and bass through the instrument input, the sound is honest and direct. The DI tone won’t flatter a poorly set-up guitar, but it captures what’s there accurately. I found the instrument input works particularly well with the included amp simulators, which add the character the clean signal lacks.

Latency Performance: This is where the M-Track Solo earned my respect. The included ASIO drivers perform remarkably well. At 128 samples, round-trip latency sits around 9ms, which is comfortable for real-time playing. Even pushing down to 64 samples, I achieved roughly 6ms round-trip without audio dropouts on a reasonably modern computer.

For context, most people can’t perceive latency below 10ms. So for tracking guitars, vocals, or MIDI instruments through software, the M-Track Solo keeps up. You can actually play virtual instruments and amp sims in real time without the frustrating delay that plagues some budget interfaces.

Audio Quality: Here’s the honest truth about 16-bit/48kHz: it’s enough for demos, podcasts, and casual recording, but it’s below the 24-bit standard used in professional production. You won’t hear a dramatic difference on playback, but you have less headroom during recording and editing.

The signal-to-noise ratio of 109dB is respectable. In practical terms, recordings sound clean at normal gain levels. Push the preamp hard or record very quiet sources, and you’ll start hearing the noise floor. For typical voice recording or instrument tracking at reasonable levels, this isn’t a concern.

The converters do their job without adding obvious coloration. What you put in is essentially what you get out. For learning proper recording technique, this transparency is actually helpful.

Direct Monitoring Performance: The USB/Direct switch offers two modes: USB (hear your DAW output) or Direct (hear your inputs with zero latency). In Direct mode, both inputs are summed to mono through the outputs. This means if you’re recording guitar and vocals simultaneously, you’ll hear them centered rather than panned.

The monitoring works as expected, with no perceivable latency in Direct mode. My only criticism is the lack of a blend control between direct and playback signals. You’re either hearing one or the other, not both mixed together. For overdubbing to existing tracks, you’ll need to use the DAW’s software monitoring instead.

Headphone Performance: The 1/8″ headphone output gets reasonably loud with headphones in the recommended 16-50 ohm range. I tested with 32-ohm headphones and had plenty of volume. Higher impedance studio headphones (like 250-ohm Beyerdynamics) struggled to reach comfortable monitoring levels.

Sound quality through headphones matched the main outputs, which is to say clean and neutral. Don’t expect the headphone amp to drive power-hungry cans, but for typical consumer or prosumer headphones, it performs fine.