Pure Vinyl with Apogee Duet

[bliss53]

Anyone tried this combination. Is there a better unit than the Duet around $500? Any hints or tips for this combination? In the interest of completeness I have a Mac Mini 2mb intel, refurbished thorens td124, an ortofon AS309S tonearm and a Zu 103 cartridge.

 

[fradi]

ZU 103? I know DL-103.

I own the Apogee too (and a Thorens 115MkII with Sony PUA-1500S tonearm and Ortofon MV20MkII). Are you using it with the Apogee Duet mic input and RIAA-deemphasis by PureVinyl?

There is be no better sound card for the mac under $500 than Apogee Duet in my opinion if you don't need SP/DIF in/out.

 

Frank

 

[bliss53]

The Zu 103 is a re-potted Denon DL103. See the link below.

 

http://www.zucable.com/turntables.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=58&category_id=17

 

I did a little testing with the 1/4 input jacks 1&2 last weekend. These are the plugs with the little guitars on them. They can be combined for the right and left channel. I tried recording with my phono stage and then with the RIAA provided by the pure vinyl software. I have always loved my Conrad Johnson PV5 phono stage with bugle boy tubes but at least initially I think the computerized RIAA sounds almost as good. I have only played/recorded a couple of albums though.

 

The Apogee Duet as a DAC for lossless itunes also seems to give my expensive Wavelength Brick DAC some competition. But I have only sampled a few songs so far. I will spend allot more time this weekend. I only have two weeks to evaluate the Apogee Duet before it cannot be returned and to evaluate Pure Vinyl before I have to pay for it.

 

Do you have any set up tips for the Duet and pure vinyl that may help me get the best audition from them?

 

[bobdog]

I use the Duet and Pure Music. Sounds very good. I have not tried very many stand alone D to A converters but have had many good CD players and the Appogee sounds as good as any I have owned.

 

[bliss53]

I spent about 10 days with the setup and I discovered that the apogee duet is a very nice set up for the money. I concluded that I like my wavelength brick better for playback. As for the the pure vinyl recording I found that I could produce a very good recording of an LP but the edit work is very tedious and I probably would not want to commit the time to get the number of recordings I would like. I may revisit pure vinyl when the next version comes out and/or when more of the splitting, naming, and click reduction tasks are automated. I think the idea of applying the RIAA correction curves in the recording software has some merit. I had some low level noise that I was not able to figure out. I was told that this was likely due to the radio shack XLR to RCA adapters I used. I also want to report that the online and phone support for pure vinyl are excellent.

 

Are there any other options I should try to record my vinyl or should I wait for new products?

 

[Panelhead]

I had a problem with my Duet. It hummed a little. Finally put a cheater plug on my monitor and it has been very quiet.

Think it has to do with FW powered interfaces. My Ergo did the same thing. The monitor is on a different circuit.

 

George

 

[Nikos]

can I use the apogee duet as phono preamp using pure vinyl and listening at the same time?

can I use it's inputs-outputs simultaneously?

thank you in advance

Nikos

 

 

[bliss53]

The apogee duet will handle both input and output from pure vinyl. When I tried the duet I did not have the correct cable set up between my tonearm and the duet. I returned the duet. As I learned more about pure vinyl and spoke with their technical support I discovered that the cabling was the problem. I regret that I did not give the duet a fair trial. I went with the pure vinyls recommendation of the tc electronic imhoimpact twin at $400. With correct resisters added to the cable the result is really good. I had a wavelength brick dac 24/96 driving the output but it could not be used at the same time with 24/192 input. I began using the impact twin output dac with results that almost match the wavelength.

 

[Nikos]

great thanks!!!

where you able to use the apogee and the impact tween at the same time? can I use the apogees input and hiface output?

 

I am very curius about the impact twin. did you try it as firewire to spdif converter feeding your dac?

tell us please about the impact twin vs apogge duet sonics...

thanks again...

 

 

 

[bliss53]

Yes you can use the apogee input and output at the same time. The duet's 24/96 output was good but both my Wavelength 24/92 and the impact twin 24/192 were better sounding. I am not saying the apogee was bad. I think the tube output and the asyc in the wavelength gave it the edge and the 24/192 with and without upsampling was the edge for the impact twin. I would have been very happy with the duet's dac if I had not had anything for an a/b comparison.

 

I did not use spdif converter. My waveleght dac only had a usb input. I am pretty new to all this digital stuff. The dac in the impact twin was almost as good as the wavelegnth and out performing the duet so I sold the wavelength and returned the duet.

 

As I said the duet got blamed for input noise so I returned it. I think the blame was unjust becuase the cable I was using from the tonearm was not wired correctly and needed a resistor.

 

I bought a sheilded tonearm cable and removed the rca conneters. I then added a XLR connectors and a 100 ohm metal film capacitor across the R and L leads and the input on the impact twin was dead quiet.

 

 

 

[Nikos]

thank you so much.

I have an apogee duet but I will buy the impact twin.

I want to use it as phono preamp with digital riaa and as firewire to spdif converter. It has the sane chipset (dice II) and jetpll as weiss int202. I am not so huppy with my hiface...

 

thanks again

Nikos