About PreSonus
PreSonus was founded in 1995 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, by LSU electrical engineering graduates Jim Odom and Brian Smith, who started the company out of a garage to solve technical problems in mastering music CDs. The company's first product, the DCP8 digitally controlled compressor/limiter/gate, won industry recognition and holds a patent for analog control over digital circuitry. PreSonus has been based at the Bon Carre Technology Park in Baton Rouge since 1998, and since November 2021 has operated as a subsidiary of Fender.
The company builds its own Studio One digital audio workstation, developed in cooperation with Hamburg-based KristalLabs starting in 2006, and bundles it with nearly every interface it sells so a new owner has a complete recording setup rather than a box that still needs software. Its AudioBox and Studio series interfaces are a mainstay recommendation for players moving from a phone or laptop mic into a proper audio interface, and reviewers consistently single out the XMAX-L microphone preamps and front-panel I/O metering as unusual at PreSonus's price points.
Brand website: presonus.com
What PreSonus makes
PreSonus's catalog runs wider than the gear we review. The lines we know best from our own testing are marked with a star:
AudioBox USB Interfaces
Entry-level two-preamp interfaces bundled with Studio One Artist and Ableton Live Lite — featured on House of Octave
Studio Series USB-C Interfaces
24-bit/192kHz interfaces with XMAX-L preamps, MIDI I/O, and front-panel metering — featured on House of Octave
Quantum Series Thunderbolt Interfaces
Higher-channel-count interfaces built for professional and project studio tracking
StudioLive Mixers
Digital mixing consoles for live sound and studio recording
Eris Studio Monitors
Near-field studio monitors for home and project studio mixing
Studio One DAW
PreSonus's own digital audio workstation, bundled with most hardware
Why we recognized PreSonus
The House of Octave Top Brand recognition isn't paid for and can't be applied for. We award it to the brands whose gear consistently stands out in our player-tested category guides. PreSonus earned it on the strength of the products below, judged the same way every product on this site is: assessed on build, tone, and playability, weighed against what players actually report over years of use, and ranked on merit.
PreSonus gear we rated highly
PreSonus AudioBox 96 25th Anniversary USB Audio Interface
In our testing, two full Class-A microphone preamps at the entry tier is genuinely uncommon, letting a buyer record an interview or a singer and a guitar properly in one pass instead of two. It ships with Studio One Artist and Ableton Live Lite, a serious pair of DAWs to find bundled at this level, and the hardware mixer knob blends input against playback without touching a driver control panel. MIDI in and out are included, quietly making it a useful hub for a small synth setup.
Read the 13 Best Audio Interfaces of 2026 (Home Studio, Podcasting, iPad & 8-Channel) guide →
PreSonus Studio 24c 2x2, 192 kHz, USB Audio Interface with Studio One DAW Recording Software
This pairs loopback, MIDI in and out, and two real XMAX-L microphone preamps in one box, which in our review was the most complete feature set at this tier for anyone recording or streaming two sources at once. Front-panel input and output metering is genuinely rare below the mid tier, letting a buyer set levels by looking rather than guessing at a single clip LED. It carries one of the larger, more mature owner-review bases we found in the category, and bundles Studio One Artist plus the PreSonus plugin suite as a complete production environment.
Read the 14 Best Budget Audio Interfaces of 2026 (Cheap Picks for Guitar, Podcasting and Streaming) guide →What earned PreSonus the recognition
- PreSonus interfaces bundle a full version of the company's own Studio One DAW rather than a time-limited demo, so a new buyer has a complete recording setup the same day
- Both interfaces we tested pack two Class-A or XMAX-L microphone preamps at price points where most competitors offer only one, letting a buyer track two sources without a second purchase
- The Studio 24c's front-panel input and output metering is a rare inclusion below the mid tier, and its loopback, MIDI I/O, and two preamps together made it the most complete streaming and podcasting feature set we found at its price
- Both interfaces carry unusually large, mature owner-review bases for their category, giving buyers a well-documented track record to check quirks against before purchase
- PreSonus has built audio hardware in Baton Rouge, Louisiana since 1995 and has developed its own Studio One DAW in-house since 2006, giving it end-to-end control over how its interfaces and software work together