Hello Everyone,
I'm planning in buying a new interface for my studio. Im a folk producer and I'm undecided in which one to get, the Apogee quartet or the new Clarett 4Pre with thunderbolt connection. The price difference is pretty big and Im not to sure the quality between these two is very contrasting. Have you guys being able to listen to these two? I'm specially interested in the AD/DA conversion. I know there's also an important latency difference between the two, mainly because the USB2 vs the Thunderbolt. What do you think?
Thank you

I´m in the same boat. From what i read about the Clarett 8pre i decided to wait for the 4pre and give it a try. Sounds very promising. Fastest Thunderbolt interface at the moment. AD/DA should be very good too. Impressive dynamic range.

Focusrite Clarett 8Pre & 8PreX
Full Review - Focusrite Clarett 8Pre Thunderbolt Interface — Studio One Expert

I like the 8pre allot so far. I can't compare it to Apogee yet. Yet, because I plan on a One in the future for 2 input travel rig.


I can say I think it sound every bit as good as Apollo Twin with WAY more connectivity and ease of use. From specs this seems every bit as true for the 4pre.

Also, latency in Maschine and Bitwig seems spot on for Focusrite published specs. One con when compared to Apollo is no onboard DSP to alleviate your CPU. But, those Apollo plugs were far to expensive and limited compared to other VSTs and even hardware!

The pres in the Quartet are fairly netural, but that's hardly a bad thing. They work quite well on most sources I've thrown at them (bass, drums, vocals, horns). While they won't ever be character preamps, they have more than enough gain for ribbons mics and gain-hungry dynamics (think SM7b). As for the conversion, I owned a previous-generation Ensemble and was pleased to hear tighter bass response in particular with the Quartet.

I have not used the Clarett series, but I owned an ISA 2, and those preamps had a certain depth and dimension to them that were beyond the Quartet's on-board preamps. They added a sparkle to overheads and acoustic guitars and stacked extremely well. The Quartet preamps stack well, too, but this is something I felt the ISA two did notably well. It may be a bit unfair to compare to them to the Quartet's on-board preamps, but that's what I've got experience with.