Very nice, but could be better

The interface is solidly built and sounds very good indeed. Compared to other interfaces in the same spec/price the Volt is better at almost everything, including headphone amp, input dynamic range, and noise floor. Also it's built in EQ filter (vintage button) was the most usable of all other brands I tried, but that's all subjective of course.

Midi I/O is a welcome as well as power switch and also the possibility to power via DC adapter or USB-C. Vintage mode adds a nice colour to your sound, which can be useful. Instrument button toggles to 1 Mega Ohm impedance, which is great for connecting passive instrument pickups. 48V phantom power has 5 second delay, blinking warning and mutes your out's to avoid loud pop's, nice. USB-C connection is also a plus, and UAD even includes a USB to USB-C cable and USB to DC power cable! I was really surprised because the more expensive Apollo's don't include any cable. Power button is there! Love it, although it is kind of hard to press, since the unit is so light I had to hold it with one hand while pressing the power switch with the other.

Things I dislike:

• Poor visual metering, only two tiny LED strips, the top one changes to orange to display -3 db and red is clipping.

• The controls layout feels a bit too cramped next to each other, many times I was hitting the wrong switches, thankfully the 48v has 5 second delay but still it's impossible to cancel it's activation, if you press it accidentally you must quickly unplug any sensible gear. Also it's really difficult to operate it with low light because all the buttons in the two rows are identical;

• Monitor knob is not linear, instead the volume get's a lot louder only in the last quarter of travel;

• Direct Monitor button is nice, but it's impossible to blend DI with Processed sound, you have to lower your master out on your daw to get the same level;

• Headphone amp is very good but it could use a bit more power, although I had no problem using 80 ohm cans, but I had to max the output level, so I would't recommend using higher impedance headphones;

• No loopback feature (which is handy nowadays but inexplicably absent from this unit as the time of writing this review);

• No dedicated virtual controller/mixer (as of time of writing this review);

• Bundled software could be better. Relab LX480 Reverb is very nice and also Softube's "Lite" version of the Marshall Plexi is great, one of my fav Marshall emulations.

Why do UAD include Ableton Live Lite and not adapt their amazing Apollo Console to the Volt series, so it integrated with Luna? Beats me.

As far as sound quality and I/O performance It's a solid 5 star interface. I'm thinking about upgrading to the Volt 276 just for the cleaner layout and proper metering display. If that's not important to you then I highly recommend this unit.

Perfect solo artist interface.

If you want an easy-to-use, no-nonsense interface that just works, this is it. Gain staging is super easy, monitor and headphone jacks right on the unit, and some built-in tube emulation if you're into that sort of thing. Great unit!