Professional quality audio adjustments in the palm of your hand!
NearStream Audio Interface
This near stream audio interface is an amazing piece of technology. It is capable of a wide range of effects, and all contained in a small easily portable unit, allowing you to work with it in almost any location!
The build quality seems ok, but it is plastic and light weight, so I do have some concern it may break if dropped or accidentally knocked to the ground.
This product gives you capabilities you once could only achieve with cumbersome equipment, likely at brick & mortar recording studio, and places them in a small easily portable unit you can take with you wherever you wish!
4 stars!
Explaining my rating system:
5 - a superior product - I would highly recommend
4 - above average – a great choice
3 - average – what one might generally expect
2 - below average – I would advise seeking an alternative
1- Horrible – a waste of your valuable money - avoid if at all possible
Brandon
★★★★★
Good audio interface for the price
The NearStream audio interface is a very compact system that looks like it was designed for musicians more than podcasters or video content creators. The design is very compact and portable, but also VERY lightweight and it feels a little cheap compared to something like a Rode device. The screen looks nice, but it doesn't really have a menu system it just has a bunch of buttons with little icons that change different settings. It seems like a step up from the cheapest audio interface you could buy but nowhere near the functionality (or price) of a Rodecaster Duo.
The way the audio interface is designed, based on the screen orientation, the microphone / instrument XLR inputs are on the front of the interface. I prefer them to be on the back because I have my audio interface on my desk and route the cables through a mic arm and want them to be as neat as possible. You can turn it around, but then the screen is upside down.
Functionality is good. It has two XLR inputs that double as 1/4" inputs, left and right 1/4" monitor output, 3.5mm audio output, two USB ports, and two 1/4" headphone ports. It also has a 3.5mm aux input. It has 48V phantom power, a large volume dian and a small power button, as well as 8 small buttons around the screen. I found it relatively easy to figure out and the sound quality was good.
I think it's a good audio interface and would work okay for a two-person podcast on the road, but think some small changes in the design would make it a much better product for content creators. Overall, it's definitely worth a look if you are looking for a compact audio interface with two xlr inputs.
C
Customer
★★★★★
Nice compact USB audio interface and mixer with a versatile set of features
This is nice, versatile, very portable USB audio interface with a lot of features. The device comes with a display screen, a main out Volume/Gain knob, two XLR/1/4 inch combo input jacks, a 3.5 mm jack to input audio from an external device, two headphone jacks with separate volume controls, two balanced 1/4 inch line out jacks for left and right speakers, a 3.5 mm stereo out for another set of speakers, a 48v phantom power switch, microphone/instrument toggle switch, a USB-c OTG port and a USB-c DC in port for charging. It also supports Blue Tooth and provides a number of onboard effects. It took a while to learn how to navigate all of the features because many are hidden to keep the device compact, and while there is a manual and a Getting Started guide, they are far from complete. What I learned is that controls are on multiple tiers, so you need to select a feature by name and then all controls apply to that single feature. So if you are dealing with, for example, input volume for a channel, you first press the button for that input channel, then select input volume and then use the volume control. Once you get used to this methodology, it works quite well, and saves space, a big advantage on the road when working in vehicles and hotel rooms. The display screen is large enough and bright enough for you to easily see what you are doing. I'm impressed with the sound, which is quite good for a device this size. It also comes with an assortment of connecting cables for other devices. This is well thought out and useful for the traveling musician.
