24% of 95 verified Focusrite Scarlett Soloowners don't recommend it — based on real owner comments from Reddit, enthusiast forums, and YouTube.
For balance: 51% recommend it. This page collects the complaints so you know what you're signing up for — read the full owner report for both sides. How we score
“My first interface was a Scarlett and it was absolutely terrible. The quality sounded bad, there was a very noticeable delay when recording.”— DaLordHamie on Reddit
“Solo doesn't have as good of software support as the 2i2, in addition to what others are saying. I've owned each, 2i2 is the way to go”— Yesssica_ on Reddit
“it seems to be a well known issue to do with the drivers and windows 11 and nobody online seems to have had any luck fixing it”— ForeignSleet on Reddit
“I’ve had to replace the Solo in 2 years. It’s a quick cheap alternative, but it may go out on you within two years.”— stacyyines on Reddit
“My Scarlett had a lot of problems losing power. I used it for like 6 years and was frustrated by it regularly.”— Royal_Annek on Reddit
“Avoided the 4th Gen Solo, especially if you’re using a gain-hungry dynamic mic. The preamp is weak.”— RudeRick on Reddit
“I haven't been impressed with the lower end focusrite interfaces, but some people love them.”— Swingmetal71 on Reddit
“Way too easily might I add. My stock Harley Benton strat redlines mine with zero input gain”— sername9344 on Reddit
“Don't fall for the scarlett everyone recommendation thats group think and no longer true.”— Electronic-Tie-9237 on Reddit
“I won't use another Focurite interface as long as there is a Universal Audio equivalent.”— SeriouslyTechStuff on Reddit
“The 3rd gen does not have enough gain to comfortably get a good leave out of the SM7B.”— zottsspotts on Reddit
“Without it, I had to crank the gain to the max and it still wasn't a good experience.”— rock962000 on Reddit
Not complaints — practical notes from owners that didn't affect the score.
“They now make a Shire SM7dB that has a built-in CloudLifter. Otherwise, you'll need to get a Standalone to boost the signal because of the high impedance.”— Surfer-Junkie on Reddit
“What you can do is create an aggregate device using 3rd party software to combine the Focusrite and USB mic as one device but there’s no point in doing that unless you have something plugged into the Focusrite.”— PeakDevon on Reddit
“Make sure you are recording in stereo not digital. The left channel is the microphone and the right is the instrument port. At least one Windows.”— Bangaladore on Reddit
“To add to this - if you plan on streaming/recording in OBS, the 4th gen scarlet series says they have loopback, so you dont need to deal with additional vst's to route digital outputs to OBS. Saved me some computing power & a headache”— sauble_music on Reddit
“Yes I went through the whole easy start setup guide they have, I uninstalled old software and I installed focusrite control 2 and the proper drivers”— ForeignSleet on Reddit
“Windows WDM, WASAPI, and MME will.let you mix and match audio hardware inputs and outputs in a DAW, but ASIO mode will not. And you need to use ASIO mode to get low latency that doesn't scramble like what the video is playing. Use just the interface for in and out and use asio mode. Set the buffer size down to like 64.”— Zestyclose_Pickle511 on Reddit
“Audio Interface is connected to PC What is the audio interface output attached to? Headphones? Speakers? You have to use the outputs on the interface to hear any playback. The interface does not output through your Macbook speakers. They need separate speakers/headphones attached”— secondhandsilenc on Reddit
“People love to hate it because it’s popular and cheap. You need about 55dB to drive SM7B mic which is on the higher end of the gain knob. Also used to not have loop back which was super annoying.”— caj_account on Reddit