Ultralite mk3 on Windows 11 -> having a lot if issues, probably driver related

[Aszazin]

Recently I purchased the Ultralite mk3 for my new PC. My previous PC had an M-audio 1010LT PCI card (vintage by now).

I'm running into very annoying issues.
My drivers are completely inconsistent and I have about zero control over samplerate & bitrate due to this.

When I open the Control panel and then my audio devices, an then open the properties of the different MOTU devices displayed there, the tabs available change every time, and within these tabs, the options I can choose change too in a random way...

Normally I should have 5 tabs:
General - Supported Formats - Levels - Advanced - Spatial sound

But sometimes (often) it only shows the first three... (occasionally the first 4.)
In worst case, when it shows three, the Levels tab is empty (most often the device doesn't work properly if that's the case...)

In "Supported Formats", sometimes it displays only 44,1kHz & 48,0kHz, sometimes only 88,2kHz & 96,0kHz

In the Advanced tab, where I can choose the "Default Format", most often it only shows either "2 channel, 16 bit, 44100 Hz" & "2 channel, 16 bit, 48000 Hz".
But if the Supported formats show 88,2kHz & 96,0kHz, it shows only "2 channel, 16 bit, 88200 Hz" & "2 channel, 16 bit, 96000 Hz",

I see no reason to run my device in 16 bit (especially not when I want to listen to hires music with very silent passages.)
Very occasionally, it suddenly shows a third option "2 channel, 24 bit, 88200 Hz" OR "2 channel, 24 bit, 96000 Hz"
But that option always disappears and I don't see why I can't select both 24bit 88,2kHz & 96kHz...

My device only works properly when in Advanced, Exclusive Mode is disabled. If I enable that, not a single windows applications will be able to use the MOTU as sound device.

I am used to the M-Audio just switching to whatever format is played by whatever application on my previous PC, also the standard built-in sound devices (Realtek on the MB or nVidia hdmi) seem not having any problems with this either (but these sound very poor)

MOTU support didn't provide much help (they proposed different things, which I tried already anyway, and when I told them about the strange behaviour of the Sound Device settings in the Control Panel, didn't get any further answer...)

(also running latest drivers and firmware of course, and re-installed the drivers numerous times, as well as restoring it to factory defaults...)

Now, the Ultralite mk3 is a second hand purchase I ran into. I like the interface and it sounds great. If I understand it right, this interface is already a decade old and MOTU seems not to be planning much support (getting the drivers right) for it on newer systems (running a i7 13700K on a Z790 chipset).

I can still bring it back to the store and ask them to order a different interface.
At this moment, I am considering to just go for the mk5... but I want to be sure that interface will not have any problems of that kind.

Does anyone has experience with a recent PC + windows 11 and the mk5 (or a similar model?)
And is the mk5 the same sound quality as the mk3 (I have little doubt, as MOTU has a very good reputation regarding the DAC/ADC's they use.)

Hope someone can inform me and help me out.
I'm not looking forward to run into problems on a brand new system for the coming years (I usually update about every 10 years...)

[rorytheherb]

I can't claim to offer a satisfying solution, but I can tell you in my experience with Ultralite Mk3 Hybrid via USB in Windows 10, I have also seen a recent increase in driver-related issues, specifically LOUD pops and clicks on playback.

I have discovered that I can temporarily alleviate the problem by changing the buffer size in MOTU Audio Console. It seems this works no matter which way you change it (including to something lower, higher, or back and forth to whatever it was set to in the first place). This seems to make the loud pops disappear. Until they come back again...

What's especially annoying about this is that the MOTU Audio Console seems to be completely inaccessible if any applications are using the device. For example, if the MOTU Main Outs are set as my Windows Playback device, and I am streaming audio on youtube in Edge, I need to close Edge before I can open MOTU Audio Console, make the change to my buffer, and then re-open Edge to continue listening.

I wanted to share this workaround since it is at least less inconvenient than rebooting, restarting the interface or unplugging anything. I found this workaround in a thread somewhere on the internet and was surprised that it worked. Unfortunately I don't know where that thread was otherwise I would post a link to it.

Anyway, I feel your pain, and personally I am looking into getting a different interface from a different manufacturer!

[Aszazin]

I returned the mk3 and took an mk5 instead.

Works like a charm now.