Audient has simply unveiled Horizon, its new flagship line of professional-grade Thunderbolt 3 audio interfaces.
Aimed squarely at audio professionals, the vary contains three rack-mount fashions – the Horizon 8P, Horizon 16 and Horizon 32 – every providing prime specs together with 32-bit mastering-grade conversion, round-trip latency of lower than a millisecond and at 192 kHz, and a scalable structure which permits for the daisy-chaining of as much as 4 Horizon interfaces on a single macOS driver.
The three interfaces on provide cater to a spread of use instances and studio setups, so let’s dive into what you get with every.
Common specs
Although boasting barely differing spec sheets geared toward completely different use instances, every of the three new Horizon interfaces has a set of common specs. They embrace 32-bit mastering-grade conversion and 0.99ms round-trip latency at 192kHz latency, which means they’ll observe via native plugins with virtually zero delay.
Moreover, every Horizon interface options digital recall of all enter good points and system settings, ADAT enlargement, BNC Phrase Clock I/O and selectable reference ranges for calibrating I/O to outboard analogue gear.
Three fashions – what’s the distinction?
Horizon 8P – This one is aimed on the monitoring studio, with 24 inputs and 32 outputs constructed round eight Audient Console Mic Preamps with ORBIT Management variable impedance. These are the identical mic pres discovered on the model’s flagship ASP8024-HE large-format recording console, now in a single rack unit for the primary time. By way of use instances, assume recording bands, drum kits, vocal periods or orchestral ensembles.
Horizon 16 – The 16 is a 34-in / 34-out interface constructed with 32 channels of mastering-grade conversion through 4 industry-standard DB25 connectors. On prime of all this, it has a devoted stereo mix-bus path. This unit will match proper into all of the studios which have an intensive arsenal of kit to seize a signature sound.
Horizon 32 – And at last, the top-end Horizon interface, the Horizon 32, is constructed for “large-format hybrid services, boasting a large 50 inputs and 50 outputs, with 64 channels of analogue I/O throughout eight DB25 connectors. This one’s the right resolution in case you’re operating a big and sophisticated studio, and need to join a number of outboard racks, consoles and multi-room setups through a single audio interface.
What’s Audient saying concerning the new Horizon vary
“Horizon has been 5 years within the making; probably the most important R&D funding we’ve ever put right into a product vary,” says Andrew Allen, Chief Product Officer at Audient. “We spared no compromise at part stage, and the result’s the best-on-the-market audio and latency efficiency. It is a fashionable system constructed for contemporary workflows.”
Allen continues, touting the Horizon’s category-leading efficiency: “As Apple Silicon and fashionable host processing get extra succesful, the worth proposition of the DSP walled-garden mannequin continues to decrease.
“Engineers not have to lock themselves into proprietary plugin ecosystems to get pro-level efficiency. Horizon’s native structure is constructed precisely for this shift, and we count on it to land effectively with clients who’ve been ready for a reputable various.”
Allen says a top-level audio interface ought to keep out of the best way of the artistic course of. “We designed Horizon so engineers can deal with the efficiency, not the routing – and we redesigned the software program from the bottom up, paying shut consideration to the person expertise. Whether or not that’s utilizing ORBIT Management on the 8P to form a ribbon mic on the analogue stage, or streaming a whole console via the Horizon 32, the {hardware} stays invisible and the workflow stays quick.”
Availability and pricing
The Audient Horizon vary can be obtainable from 28 September 2026 through Audient sellers worldwide. Pricing for every mannequin is as follows:
- Horizon 8P – £2,199 / €2,499 / $2,799
- Horizon 16 – £2,199 / €2,499 / $2,799
- Horizon 32 – £2,799 / €3,299 / $3,499
Be taught extra at Audient.
Harry Levin is a contract journalist with credit in SPIN, Billboard, MusicTech, Grammy.com, Los Angeles Journal, and extra. His musical journey started 20 years in the past with a Led Zeppelin CD. He performed jazz trombone via school, produced large-scale digital music occasions, and now spends his skilled time writing and modifying.
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