New Apogee Quartet

[kiKoMan]

Originally Posted by Dpro

The Hilo may be great for what it is but at that price point you are not getting a lot of bang for the buck besides great converters. I really think you took a knee jerk approach to all of this. First you loved your Duet but you clearly wanted more inputs and outputs. Instead of going that way you wound up spending around $2500 for another 2 in 2out device. Granted its a great unit but for the money spent you could have gotten yourself into something with more options that would have sounded as good or better than the Duet 2. To use the Lynx as a reason for the Quartet not being worth it is ludicrous you cannot compare the two.

In fact you yourself stated that you had no complaints using the Duet with clients. Why fix something that is not broken except for needing more ins and outs.

If you were happy with the Duet 2's sound then indeed a Quartet would have been the logical upgrade for you. Spend the $1295 on it take the other $1200 buy a great compressor or mic or mic pre.
Instead you blew the wad on a converter.

Its always wise to upgrade the signal path all the way around rather than focusing on one part.

This is my opinion on your decision. Oh and earlier you were going off about Focusrite and Mackie Oynx as examples.
I am sorry but both of those do not compare to Apogee converters in my opinion I have owned both and feel Apogee bests them and this from my personal experience.

I disagree with you completely. At this point in the game, the rubber hits the road at the conversion point. So yes, I blew my wad on the Hilo. Just a decision I felt would be best for my recording career. I'll see how it "plays" out. Again, apogee is a great company who stands behind their products, no complaints with my experience.

Maybe you are right about the Hilo being overpriced as well, I'll find out for myself let all the slutz know...

[oceantracks]

To me the "rubber hits the road" with what music goes through the converters. You could make a great record on almost anything nowadays, someone posted an example of his work a year or so ago up here to demonstrate a new pre, and he was using an 003, and the whole thing sounded superb, not the least of which was the song.

JMHO.

TH

[kiKoMan]

Originally Posted by oceantracks

To me the "rubber hits the road" with what music goes through the converters. You could make a great record on almost anything nowadays, someone posted an example of his work a year or so ago up here to demonstrate a new pre, and he was using an 003, and the whole thing sounded superb, not the least of which was the song.

JMHO.

TH

Assuming you have a good SOURCE, we're are talking about giving yourself the best chance to capture that source. Garbage in garbage out concept, yes I understand. Michael Jackson recorded with an SM57, and made legendary music. I am simply sharing what gives me the best chance to "capture" music not make it, understand?

[Jules]

Originally Posted by oceantracks

To me the "rubber hits the road" with what music goes through the converters. You could make a great record on almost anything nowadays, someone posted an example of his work a year or so ago up here to demonstrate a new pre, and he was using an 003, and the whole thing sounded superb, not the least of which was the song.

JMHO.

TH

Of course. On this forum that is assumed as understood... (We can't snark at community members and suggest "had you thought about making your music less shit"? Well, we could but that would be rude and its better to give everyone some courtesy and consideration)

[waveplant]

Anyone else that picked up a Quartet having any success with Maestro 2 on 10.6.8?

[Lupez]

Originally Posted by twotonbrick

Just finished mixing this - not sure how it sounds on your system, but I'd say the low end is very nice.

hey this song is beautiful!

[nms]

Originally Posted by kiKoMan

Maybe you are right about the Hilo being overpriced as well, I'll find out for myself let all the slutz know...

lol! Was something misconstrued or did Dpro actually say somewhere the Hilo is overpriced? What a far shot that would be. You can pick them up for $2050 but they could have easily sold them for $3k.

Touching on some of the rest of that discussion.. Back when I was using a KRK Ergo with VXT6's I thought the sound was fantastic. Should I have stuck with it then? I use a Hilo and Focal Twins nowadays. Which do you think sounds better?

Anyway, Dpro's description of the Hilo is way off base. It has 2 pairs of mastering grade ADCs and 3 pairs of DACs (one used for headphones), a great master clock for your rig, an internal 32ch digital router like I've never seen, spdif/ADAT/AES I/O, touch screen, etc.

[Izzi]

Originally Posted by twotonbrick

Just finished mixing this - not sure how it sounds on your system, but I'd say the low end is very nice.

Beautiful Track!!!

[Dpro]

Originally Posted by nms

lol! Was something misconstrued or did Dpro actually say somewhere the Hilo is overpriced? What a far shot that would be.

As for some of the rest of that discussion.. Back when I was using a KRK Ergo with VXT6's I thought the sound was fantastic. Should I have stuck with it then? I use a Hilo and Focal Twins nowadays. Which do you think sounds better?

Anyway, Dpro's description of the Hilo is way off base. It has 2 pairs of mastering grade ADCs and 3 pairs of DACs (one used for headphones), a great master clock for your rig, an internal 32ch digital router like I've never seen, spdif/ADAT/AES I/O, touch screen, etc.

Indeed I never said it was overpriced per se. I did point out that the kiko was making a broad jump from Duet to Hilo. For what he was spending he could pick something up that would perform as well or better than his Duet. I also pointed out that by his own earlier statements that he liked the Duet. He did not have a problem with its conversion or sound and his clients did not have a problem either.
This all came about because he was deriding the Quartet for what it offered for the money, which he had expressed interest in before the price was announced, which he did not like.
His answer was to jump up another $1300 and get the Hilo. Then complain about the Duet and Quartet thereby contradicting his own previous statements.
Excuse me for pointing a somewhat Ironic jump on his part. Complain about the cost of what he got in the Quartet and then jump to spending close to $1300 more. Granted he got a great unit with some great features but for what he wanted to achieve? Perhaps not exactly well thought out. IMO.




I stand corrected on the my assessment of the Hilo( mea culpa) . I do not own one and you do. I strictly went from descriptions and you have pointed out more features than I realized it had.

I know you been through a lot of I/O's in your quest and plan on adding I/O to augment your Hilo by your own statements.

What I felt kiko was looking for by his own statements was more analog I/O mic pre and line in and out. That is what I was pointing out in my post.
Forgive me for supposedly maligning the Hilo.

[nms]

Yeah the issue of cost is a very relevant one obviously. The reality of converters is there are a lot of other things that make a bigger difference which should be looked after first in order to make any sense. I/O options aside I would much sooner recommend a unit like the Quartet than Hilo to anyone doing music at a hobby/amateur level. Although as I mentioned the Hilo can be landed for as low as $2050 so the difference is only about $800 between them.

The sound of this thing won't be symphony level but will be 3rd gen Duet sound I imagine. I'm a bit disappointed with the connectivity though for a $1200 unit which reduces its flexibility. No coax spdif I/O, no WC in, no AES, no digital outs of any kind. It's a cool design though in terms of the hardware.

[twotonbrick]

Originally Posted by Lupez

hey this song is beautiful!

Originally Posted by Izzi

Beautiful Track!!!

Thanks!

[TS211]

Apogee is focusing their promotions for this product on the controller aspect as much as interface capabilities so why wouldn't they bless us with a dedicated talkback function????

For me that would be awesome. Its a desktop unit so could easily have a push to talk button maybe

[miscend]

Originally Posted by nms

The sound of this thing won't be symphony level but will be 3rd gen Duet sound I imagine. I'm a bit disappointed with the connectivity though for a $1200 unit which reduces its flexibility. No coax spdif I/O, no WC in, no AES, no digital outs of any kind. It's a cool design though in terms of the hardware.

The specs are exactly the same as the Duet. And someone on this thread called Apogee and they confirmed it is identical sound wise to the Duet 2.

[miscend]

Originally Posted by TS211

Apogee is focusing their promotions for this product on the controller aspect as much as interface capabilities so why wouldn't they bless us with a dedicated talkback function????

For me that would be awesome. Its a desktop unit so could easily have a push to talk button maybe

That's a very important feature. I'm guessing talkback could be implemented via a software update assigned to one of the touchpad buttons.

[kiKoMan]

Originally Posted by Dpro

Indeed I never said it was overpriced per se. I did point out that the kiko was making a broad jump from Duet to Hilo. For what he was spending he could pick something up that would perform as well or better than his Duet. I also pointed out that by his own earlier statements that he liked the Duet. He did not have a problem with its conversion or sound and his clients did not have a problem either.
This all came about because he was deriding the Quartet for what it offered for the money, which he had expressed interest in before the price was announced, which he did not like.
His answer was to jump up another $1300 and get the Hilo. Then complain about the Duet and Quartet thereby contradicting his own previous statements.
Excuse me for pointing a somewhat Ironic jump on his part. Complain about the cost of what he got in the Quartet and then jump to spending close to $1300 more. Granted he got a great unit with some great features but for what he wanted to achieve? Perhaps not exactly well thought out. IMO.




I stand corrected on the my assessment of the Hilo( mea culpa) . I do not own one and you do. I strictly went from descriptions and you have pointed out more features than I realized it had.

I know you been through a lot of I/O's in your quest and plan on adding I/O to augment your Hilo by your own statements.

What I felt kiko was looking for by his own statements was more analog I/O mic pre and line in and out. That is what I was pointing out in my post.
Forgive me for supposedly maligning the Hilo.

To clarify, I was looking to upgrade my sound in terms of converters. The Duet 1 and 2 have served me very well however I strongly believe that they are entry to mid entry level pieces of gear. This isn't a bad thing, as I learned how to mix and master using these units.

That being said, I decided to upgrade to the LYNX Hilo. Without undermining the quartet, my main point is that $1,295 seems like too much money to spend on the quartet. Enough said about that, I don't even own a quartet, so I can't say anything about it. I don't need more channels than Duet 2, I need world class channels in terms of sound. I have done enough recording to know how to achieve the sound I am going for. I strongly believe that the LYNX HiLo will be the best piece of gear in my studio and hopefully, will help me create the sounds and mixes I am striving for.

Over time, I hope to give the slutz on gearslutz a candid review of the Hilo. In spite of all the stellar reviews and sound clips I've heard (produced by the Hilo), I am going to be completely neutral to my approach. I will use my ears to evaluate it's performance. And yes this was a huge leap of faith for me. For all I know, I may completely dislike the Hilo. I don't know, I just want to be as objective as I possibly can be. I am thankful for this website because this is where I learned of the Hilo and I was able to sift through all the information and make my decision.

[elmolemon]

I'm not exactly shure how objective one can be after spending that much money on the Hilo. Double blind testing would be best.

Especially with converters..

Edit: But let's get back to topic! Quartet

[nms]

Originally Posted by elmolemon

I'm not exactly shure how objective one can be after spending that much money on the Hilo. Double blind testing would be best.

Especially with converters..

Some people are chumps about that, but the rest manage it just fine. People sell gear constantly because they weren't impressed with it. That's nothing new. The Hilo isn't an expensive unit. Its street price isn't much more than UFX or Apollo. Expensive is when you get into the $3k+ units! How about a Prism AD2. $8k for 2 channels of ADC.

[elmolemon]

All i wanted to say was, don't underestimate the phychological effect of having spend money on a new converter.

I'm guilty of being a honeymoon-guy myself. At least sometimes, but who isn't?

Failing to be "completely neutral" is nothing new to me..

[antstudio]

A lot of things I like here, even if it's a bit pricey.

Currently I have a Duet 1 plus a Balanced Breakout Box (had a noise problem before) plus a Hosa Switcher to be able to switch between monitors. I've been considering buying an ensemble for more preamps but one thing I was afraid to give up was the nice knob on my desk for controlling my monitors, since I've heard aggregation isn't supported between Duet 1 and Ensemble. Honestly I would probably have been happy just aggregating my Duet 1 with the Ensemble or even just another Duet 1.

The Quartet seems to give me exactly what I needed all in one box. Same number of 4 preamps as Ensemble, balanced outputs, monitor switching built-in (with some nice monitor control features).

Considering I paid <$300 for my Duet used and could probably pick up an ensemble for <$1000 used, it's perhaps not too big a leap, since this may allow me to sell the Duet 1. I guess I'm just trying to justify, as it's a bit steep for me.

Does anyone know if the Quartet (on USB2) and my Duet 1 (on Firewire) can be aggregated?

..ant

[Rev. Robb]

Originally Posted by kiKoMan

Michael Jackson recorded with an SM57, and made legendary music.

From what I have read he sang into an SM7, not 57. Two different mics.

[kiKoMan]

Originally Posted by antstudio

A lot of things I like here, even if it's a bit pricey.

Currently I have a Duet 1 plus a Balanced Breakout Box (had a noise problem before) plus a Hosa Switcher to be able to switch between monitors. I've been considering buying an ensemble for more preamps but one thing I was afraid to give up was the nice knob on my desk for controlling my monitors, since I've heard aggregation isn't supported between Duet 1 and Ensemble. Honestly I would probably have been happy just aggregating my Duet 1 with the Ensemble or even just another Duet 1.

The Quartet seems to give me exactly what I needed all in one box. Same number of 4 preamps as Ensemble, balanced outputs, monitor switching built-in (with some nice monitor control features).

Considering I paid <$300 for my Duet used and could probably pick up an ensemble for <$1000 used, it's perhaps not too big a leap, since this may allow me to sell the Duet 1. I guess I'm just trying to justify, as it's a bit steep for me.

Does anyone know if the Quartet (on USB2) and my Duet 1 (on Firewire) can be aggregated?

..ant

should be able to aggregate on a mac.

[kiKoMan]

Originally Posted by TS211

Apogee is focusing their promotions for this product on the controller aspect as much as interface capabilities so why wouldn't they bless us with a dedicated talkback function????

For me that would be awesome. Its a desktop unit so could easily have a push to talk button maybe

Eat up one of the (4) inputs for your talkback...now you have a menage with a talkback!

[TheSiege]

Originally Posted by kiKoMan

should be able to aggregate on a mac.

I don't believe Apogee or Apple support Aggregation with FireWire devices at all.. definitely give it a try!

I think the whole USB Driver overhaul on 10.6.4 is where they officially started supporting aggregation

[mixerguy]

All the whiners on this thread should take a chill pill

There are plenty of interfaces available on the market. If you want a different feature set than the Quartet then go buy it.

I know for a fact that the converters and the preamps on the duet 2 are very very good.

I strongly suspect the the quartet will sound as good - if not better.

$1,400 for this quality of gear, with these functions is nothing short of amazing to me.

Many many people will find the quartet is EXACTLY what they need.

If it isn't what you need - then shut up and go moan in the moan zone.

Just my 2c. :-)

[kiKoMan]

Originally Posted by mixerguy

All the whiners on this thread should take a chill pill

There are plenty of interfaces available on the market. If you want a different feature set than the Quartet then go buy it.

I know for a fact that the converters and the preamps on the duet 2 are very very good.

I strongly suspect the the quartet will sound as good - if not better.

$1,400 for this quality of gear, with these functions is nothing short of amazing to me.

Many many people will find the quartet is EXACTLY what they need.

If it isn't what you need - then shut up and go moan in the moan zone.

Just my 2c. :-)

But that takes all the fun out of being a slut! The whining is great because that's how people find out about different products, pro's and con's. So if you don't like all the whining go read reviews on Sweetwater! This is GEARSLUTZ...

[kiKoMan]

Originally Posted by TheSiege

I don't believe Apogee or Apple support Aggregation with FireWire devices at all.. definitely give it a try!

I think the whole USB Driver overhaul on 10.6.4 is where they officially started supporting aggregation

OK, I know apogee doesn't endorse aggregation, however I have talked to more than one apogee rep. who told me how to do it and that it definitely works with DUET 1 and 2.

[kiKoMan]

Originally Posted by mixerguy

All the whiners on this thread should take a chill pill

There are plenty of interfaces available on the market. If you want a different feature set than the Quartet then go buy it.

I know for a fact that the converters and the preamps on the duet 2 are very very good.

I strongly suspect the the quartet will sound as good - if not better.

$1,400 for this quality of gear, with these functions is nothing short of amazing to me.

Many many people will find the quartet is EXACTLY what they need.

If it isn't what you need - then shut up and go moan in the moan zone.

Just my 2c. :-)

What is your experience with DUET 2? How extensively have you used this product? What do you have to compare it to?

[RCM - Ronan]

Originally Posted by kiKoMan

What is your experience with DUET 2? How extensively have you used this product? What do you have to compare it to?

I have worked the Duet 2 pretty extensively and it is awesome. Just stunning what it can do in its price point. If the quartet sounds as good, it is going to be a pretty awesome piece. I wish they had put a lightpipe output as well, but it still looks really cool.

[tothemoon]

Originally Posted by twotonbrick

Just finished mixing this - not sure how it sounds on your system, but I'd say the low end is very nice.

Hi twotonbrick, thanks for shearing that song. If you don't mind me asking, what tracks did you exactly record with the Quartet?

[cane creek]

Originally Posted by amargulies

Hi everybody,

First of all - I'm not quite understanding what a few of you mean when you said the price might come down in time, or if you have a good relationship with a dealer you can get it cheaper? I've talked to every big dealer over the last 2 years about Duets 1 and 2 - it seemed that NOBODY discounts them because Apogee doesn't allow it.

WRONG!!!!!!

I know big name dealer websites where I can key in a code at the shopping basket and get 10% off apogee or any other gear, it's no big secret.

For me Quartet at £999 is not tempting me to give-up my Duet/Big knob combo, at £700 I'd be interested.