If you’re making music, recording podcasts, or even connecting your computer to speakers, you’re best off using a USB audio interface. And if you’re using an iPad, you don’t even have a choice.
The Biggest Mistake Beginners Make When Buying an Audio Interface
Your computer has a headphone jack, probably a microphone jack, and maybe, as on some Macs, a combo jack that does both. And the headphone jack on a Mac is pretty great, even if you’re using expensive studio headphones that require a lot of power to drive. But if you want to do anything other than basic listening, you’re better off plugging in a USB audio interface and using that. The good news is that it can be really, really easy, especially on a Mac, iPad, or even iPhone.
“Anyone serious about music production or podcasting 100 percent needs an audio interface,” audio engineer and music production blogger Talal Khan told Lifewire via email. “But you can use [AirPods or your computer’s headphone jack] to listen to music from a non-production perspective. An interface is only required if you’re recording and making mixing decisions.”
An audio interface is a box that connects to your computer via USB or Thunderbolt, which adds connections for microphones, musical instruments, drum machines, etc., plus outputs for speakers, headphones, etc. It also converts analog audio (from a microphone, for example) to digital, and then converts the digital audio from the computer back to analog. This process is known as digital-to-analog conversion (DAC) and digital-to-analog conversion (ADC).
