UA Apollo - Thunderbolt ready!

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Formant024

Digital Smokerings
ill o.g.
universal_audio_apollo-640x83.jpg




http://www.protoolerblog.com/2012/01/19/new-interface-from-universal-audio-with-on-board-dsp-apollo/
 

Formant024

Digital Smokerings
ill o.g.
I think 2 grand for the Duo and $2500 for the Quad is a tad steep.

There's a few things here dac, now that youve witnessed the quality of some top notch nearfields what d/a will you use ? An alternative is to get active nearfields with a digital interface but if not you need to match your signal chains up to par with quality. You dont setup focals with an m-audio interface :) or a u87 to a $200 preamp. If you grade up to serious stuff, grade up everyting, mogami and neutrik the lot.

Now for the price, subtract the price for a quad and youre left with the cost for the i/o. As of now there isnt much info/specs on the i/o and its not going to be 2192 so i dont know to what UA interface you can refer to. They've been working on the apollo for 3 years so i assume its build from scratch. I think the preamps will be okayish, you have to consider that discrete builds do not fit a 1u enclosure so the line drivers ad/da is what will make or break the apollo. UA aims at mastering grade i/o but thats OEM talk and will be determined on the first shootouts with rme ufx, metric halo and the lot. Digital i/o i wont put in account much since adat=adat, a 1 on 1 transfer with no conversion.

Its a smart way for UA to promote UAD even more presenting this set solution. High end users will not buy into it but people moving up from their budget setups looking to incorperate UAD plugs will find much appeal.
 

dacalion

Hands Of FIRE!
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 259
I know you're not gonna like my choices...lol, but I'm thinking more on the lines of a Focusrite Liquid Saffire 56, MOTU 896mk3 Hybrid or the RME Fireface 800 tops. I really like the MOTU and the RME but we'll see.
 

Scholar

willing vic to the music
ill o.g.
I feel u Dac i like the rme, i got to hear and see one in use and it was light years better then my Tascam Fw1884, add the fact it has solid drivers and support(ufx btw) it makes me wonder if UA skipped on quality or chose to make it up on the back end with their plugs...In any event it looks interesting...
 

Formant024

Digital Smokerings
ill o.g.
I know you're not gonna like my choices...lol, but I'm thinking more on the lines of a Focusrite Liquid Saffire 56, MOTU 896mk3 Hybrid or the RME Fireface 800 tops. I really like the MOTU and the RME but we'll see.

Get the rme! Im not in that league anymore going from hdsp 9652 -> 3x 1224 -> ssl and the only motu left is the 8pre which is a bang for a buck mic pre. The only reason to move from the RME back then was the limited bandwidth on adat, the software (totalmix) however has been surely missed ever since lol. The fireface 800 is adi based and imo, doesnt come close to the 896 converters and clock...not even talking about focusrite lol


@scholar; yeah like i said, its not a matter of skipping quality since i assume that the design of the apollo isnt based on any other existing UA interface/converter. Stating that its aim is at mastering transparency you can rule out the comparison to a 2192 :) Anyway, UFX is a beast and im really interested to see a shootout against the apollo.
 
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