Any thunderbolt expansion chassis out yet?

[dbjp]

I was recently contemplating selling my HD rig off and buying into a mobile rig with PT10 CPTK, what with all the nicely priced i/o's w/DSP available today, but after trying my friend's ULN8 setup, I've changed my mind.
Seriously flexible, yes, great sound, yes. As quick and fuss free as PTHD? No way. Inserting hardware's a drag. Recording (thus routing through two softwares) is a drag. My friend's really used to it now so loves it, but he still prefers using HD rigs in studios. Makes a difference the less you have to do for any given task.

Soooo. Having just bought a new macbook, I'm ready to get my PTHD mobile rig setup. Not HDX (HD2) but it'll do for now.
I don't mind simply taking out HD1 with me, as I'll never record more than 16 channels at once (Aurora 16).
The idea would be to use a thunderbolt expansion chassis like the announced (and delayed, it seems) magma chassis, but as I said I only need to take out HD1 with me so I could use something like the announced (and again delayed) Sonnet one slot chassis.
Has anyone brought one out to the market?

It seems these things need special drivers so Magma might be a necessity. Who knows. In which case does anyone have a solid release date?

Cheers.

[projektk]

Magma is the only one I know about. Should work with the cards, dedicated desktop graphics however doesn't work on Mac through the chassis. I'm not sure though, without it being out, its hard to tell how well it will play on Mac, Thunderbolt seems like it's going to be golden on personal laptops. Time will tell.

Sent from my LG-P925 using Gearslutz.com

[psycho_monkey]

Magma is the only guaranteed and supported option. No idea if there's an approved thunderbolt chassis yet.

[nst7]

Magma had said theirs would be out by the end of February, but their site is still showing that they're taking "pre-orders".

There's another company called Sonnett that will be coming out with a single slot chassis (should be cheaper), and currently that's on track to be released sometime in April.

Originally both of these were supposed to come out last year, but kept getting delayed more and more. Not sure what the problem is.

Here's the link to the Sonnet product (scroll down a bit):

Sonnet - Thunderbolt Storage, Adapters & Expansion Boxes

[KennyS]

Anyone heard anything else about when the Magma Thunderbolt should arrive?

Thanks,
KennyS

[tommyd]

I check in with Magma often, and on Monday I was told by the end of March / first part of April. Hopefully.........

[broadscotch]

I've been keeping my eye on this as well for a while now (TB products have been SLOW to market).

Also check out the mLogic mLink
mLogic | www.mlogic.com

And the two Sonnet boxes (Echo Express and Echo Express Pro)
Sonnet - Thunderbolt Storage, Adapters & Expansion Boxes

Both of these look to be able to support an HD Native card (which is what I'm looking for).

[KennyS]

Is anyone else frustrated by this. I need one of these very quickly but it seems like they may never come out or at least not for awhile.

[broadscotch]

Originally Posted by KennyS

Is anyone else frustrated by this. I need one of these very quickly but it seems like they may never come out or at least not for awhile.

Actually Sonnet has theirs listed as June, and I think we'll see the Magma this summer as well. I'd love to have it NOW but we'll have to wait. Im still surprised by the lack of drives, portable and otherwise. Also, just because the chassis arrives, doesn't mean our software/hardware will work. I'm going to immediately test HD native, but I'm expecting it to not work until they have an update released. Can anyone else confirm this technically? Any PCIe card will still need drivers right? Magma has always seemed plug and play, and it makes up for the price premium, but from what I've heard Thunderbolt will require drivers when using expansion for PCIe.

[KennyS]

Originally Posted by broadscotch

Actually Sonnet has theirs listed as June, and I think we'll see the Magma this summer as well. I'd love to have it NOW but we'll have to wait. Im still surprised by the lack of drives, portable and otherwise. Also, just because the chassis arrives, doesn't mean our software/hardware will work. I'm going to immediately test HD native, but I'm expecting it to not work until they have an update released. Can anyone else confirm this technically? Any PCIe card will still need drivers right? Magma has always seemed plug and play, and it makes up for the price premium, but from what I've heard Thunderbolt will require drivers when using expansion for PCIe.

This is exactly how I'm going to be using mine. With the HD Native Card. I'm sure your probably right on the drivers and software update. I just am having a hard time using my Lynx just with USB! But it is surprising me do another month isn't going to make a massive difference.

Cheers,
KennyS