Solution for both input and output?

[markr]

..availability of good (in this case, GREAT) two channel A/D/A converters has forced me to think about and also research a lot of different subjects related to the requirements of the 'typical home user' and to also realize that I hadn't really thought about this too much with relation to say, your particular needs and wants. ... my personal needs are different. Thanks for the 'awakening'. I also think you will be most happy by doing this 'right' the first time. I'm glad you found a better deal than with the 'barbaric' surcharge levied for this box there.

 

Sorry about the 'download limits' there as well. We don't have those in the US as such.... YET. At least not in major metro areas. Most of the real in-depth info about the Duet so far appears to be in video format unfortunately. The video points out these points that will be important to you.

- The signal level is switchable inside the software provided with the Duet. You may switch between +4 and -10. the -10 levels are the ones that you will want to use to match your home gear.

- You may use only 1 pair of either the XLR or 1/4 inputs at one time.

- Your best result for consumer level gear will probably be with the XLR inputs

 

The only other thing that I noted in 'diving deep' on the Duet was something I hadn't really paid attention to before: its max resolution is 24/96 I/O. This is a great level of digital audio IMO. I cannot tell the difference between good material recorded at this level, and some of the best analog audio that I have ever heard. Some small portion of audio material is becoming available for download or purchase on a DVD disc for transfer to hard disk are at higher digital resolutions though. Think about this some. I have a feeling that this may not be important to you, but think about it. Given the quality of A/D/A converters in the Duet, I don't believe that there is a better 2 channel solution for what you are trying to do yet available at this price point area. Browse their "Rosetta" two channel A/D/A box to see the price for an equivalent level of A/D/A converter quality that does higher digital resolution, and you will see what I mean.

 

markr

 

 

[TheRocker]

Hi Mark,

 

Sorry I haven't replied for a while, work has been keeping me flat out.

 

I have done some more research on various options via the www, and it looks as though the Duet has some problems eg. kernel panics when waking from sleep and occasional sound glitches, which has cooled me off towards it, although I may re-consider it when they get the bugs ironed out.

 

The thing is, there doesn't appear to be much else around for a single box solution of equivalent sound quality/price ratio, so it looks as though I will have to look at two separate boxes again. Also your comment about possible higher resolutions than 96kHz available in the future made me think it was better to have two separately upgradeable components.

 

I will have to spend some more time researching the A/D side of things as that appears to have far less info and products available than DACs.

 

[markr]

I hadn't heard about the issues with the Duet that you mention. You are doing the correct thing: research. Keep it up. A bit of personal experience on that matter with regard to the A/D/A box I ended up buying:

 

During the first year or so of it's life the RME FF400 was having some issues with audible "popping" at various resolution settings. Also, another user who wanted to use the FF440 as an electronic measurement aid, had connected the 1 and 2 inputs (combo 1/4" and XLR with phantom power for certain microphone types) to a very expensive preamp (that he did not own) and fried it because the phantom power was not actually being switched off by the software switch. Within a short period, RME had found the cause of the issues and made a firmware upgrade available which fixed both issues. The FIRST thing I did when I received mine was update the firmware. I have experienced no issues with my unit. If I had seen the issues reported WHEN they were happening, I probably would have moved on and not looked back. As it happened however, the issues had occurred almost a year before I was shopping for a box and the solution was also on the web for the finding. I had to go to a different site to find it though. - I really liked the feature set of the FF400......

 

I relate this because I'm sure that Apogee will correct any issues that can be addressed pretty quickly. Stay tuned to forums where you found this information out! But don't stop looking around. A near perfect solution of another type could be out there. You are correct though: There don't seem to be a lot of 2-channel-only A/D/A solutions out there. I skeptical of the 'cheap and easy' ones too. I just haven't heard anything about them.

 

markr.

 

[TheRocker]

Hi Mark, dragging an old thread out of the dust here!

 

After much procrastination and research, I pulled the trigger on the Apogee Duet a couple of weeks back, and it got here a couple of days ago.

 

First thing I did after installing the Maestro software and hooking it up was to set the Duet to be the default input/output device in Audio Midi Setup, and set the sample rate to 24/96.

 

First (audio) impressions (all relative to the built-in output of the MacBook) were of a little tightening up of the bass. It does not increase or decrease the bass output, just clarifies it a bit.

 

After a few more hours listening and comparing (not ABX ;-) ), the sound through the Duet is definitely slightly clearer throughout the audio spectrum, but the overriding difference is in the bass, for example a song such as Rob Zombie's More Human Than Human that had slightly boomy bass through the built-in output, had clearer bass through the Duet, allowing me to turn it up louder without distortion :-) . I wouldn't say the difference in sound is vast though, the built-in output gives a pretty good account of itself!

 

All the above impressions were obtained listening to FLACs via the 'Play' app.

 

I have not tried any recording yet due to a lack of time.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Thanks for the update Peter!

 

[markr]

I am glad that you took your time. About a month and a half since the last post in this thread here, wasn't it? You seem to have done your research into the areas you were unclear on - I try to pay attention here on Computer Audiophile - and then did what many visitors to C/A , and people wanting to incorporate their home computers into a fine audio system, will have to do for probably some time to come: close your eyes and 'jump off that ledge', having not heard the device that seems to fit the criteria. I sincerely hope things go well for you with this unit and cannot WAIT to 'hear' how the recording goes! Please let us know more when you have more to share.

 

Meanwhile, I am curious: At what digital resolution were the FLAC file that you mention recorded?

 

markr

 

[TheRocker]

Mark, the FLACs were a mixture of 16/44.1 created from CD rips and 24/96 created from DVD-A rips. I have only one DVD-A with 2 channel 24/192 on it (REM In Time) which I have FLACed but Play will not play that resolution in either WAV/AIFF or FLAC. I can play those WAV/AIFF files in iTunes however, but I have not tried that yet. Obviously the Duet will not do 24/192 so iTunes would be downsampling to 24/96 which may or may not be audible.

 

Despite the different resolutions of the source material, I used the 'set and forget' method described halfway down the page at:

 

http://www.stereophile.com/news/121707lucky/