Apogee Duet on FW 800 = crap

[Robert Randolph]

I've had someone bring in a duet and it worked just fine on 3 different iMacs, including the latest.

Some of the older models it was required to run it through another device such as a hard drive.

[Big Gene]

It worked fine on FW 400 on the old Dual Core but on 800 it'd eventually break up with all kinds of horrible noise. Same deal on this new iMac. Not sure what the problem is and apparently neither do Apogee. Nice unit otherwise, but won't be buying another.

[cinealta]

Sounds like a software driver issue.

[faramita]

Mine (early one) worked great for a year or two, than it developed occasional noises, than it made static noise when I switched phantom power on. It was a hardware issue, sent it to fix, cost around € 50. (It was out of warranty by than)

[north3d]

Just use the 400 !


I've been using one for 4 years on a Mac Pro ...
(now on Lion OS)
But ... I did crap out the drivers ...once
... Had to remove all of the old drivers with App Zapper.
After reinstall ... it's been working great!

Best sounding I/O I've ever used

[elambo]

Fwiw, there are countless reports of people successfully using a Duet w/ FW800.

[Big Gene]

Well they weren't interested in addressing it when I was in contact with their support. They just blamed the iMac.... and I guess the new one as well.

[Dysanfel]

Works great here:

Duet 1 + Duet Breakout Box
2009 27" i7 iMac 12GB RAM 256GB SSD
OSX 10.7.4
FW400 ->FW800 cable

[NoVi]

I'm hanging out for the Thunderbolt > Firewire adapter that Apple promised at WWDC. So I can connect my Apogee Duet to my 2012 MBA.

It's now connected to a rather prehistoric iBook G4, but it works great, can't remember I ever had a poblem with it. I believe I been using it since app 2007.

[grawk]

maybe you have a bad fw400-800 cable?

[noon]

Lol I put up with this for two years as I was a student.
Now that I got some $$$ thought it was time to finally fix it.

Did all the software updates both Apogee and Apple.
Put genuine Apple Ram in there.

In the end it was just the stupid ass 400-800 firewire cable - we put my mates in and not only did it improve the overall sound but the problem went away

[Joe Porto]

Try another FW 800 cable. I would have to replace the FW400>FW800 cable every couple months. The FW800 side would loose tension on the contacts and start causing static, and eventually the Duet would disconnect. As long as the cable was ok, my duet worked fine.

[rici]

Originally Posted by Big Gene

Didn't work properly on the old iMac doesn't work properly on the brand new iMac.... it's crap. Use FW 800 it eventually deteriorates into static and breakup. I'll never buy another Apogee product. Not to mention their complete lax attitude with software updates on older product.. that took forever last time around. Just saying'

Oh and I did talk to support once about it and they said it must be the iMac FW. Great answer for a Mac only product.

i had similar problems when other bus powered devices has been attached to my mbp.
since i use a powered hub for my hd, i have no problems anymore.
hope it helps!

[noon]

Scratch that it has now gone back to the same thing :(

[Rockshamrover]

I'm feeling your pain bro.
I had similar issues when I moved to lion. It took months to get the problem fixed.
I had to use an old fasttrack pro, which was like owning a Ferrari ( the duet ) and having to use the bus

Strangely enough, none of the apogee fixes worked for me but turning off airport utility and blue tooth did the job.

I'm a bit anxious about moving to mountain lion, but apogee seem to be ahead of the game on this one.

Good luck.