You are sacrificing plugin quality by not going with UAD. Duet RME BabyFace Pro Audient iD22 Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 Apogee Duet 2 RME Fireface UC Apogee Ensemble RME Fireface UCX Apogee Element 24. Based on what they tell me, their plugins are great, and the unit itself is easy to work with! When I was deciding I narrowed it down to the Presonus Quantum 2626, Apogee Element 24, or UA Apollo Twin X Duo. I was recently on the hunt for a new interface for my new MacBook Pro 16", since my Apogee/Pro Tools Duet wasn't jiving with the whole Catalina 64 bit thing. So for me the element wins on better connectivity, but in your case that's not needed. The Element also doesn't have the crazy connection cables that … That means they actually have less latency with native plugins than the Apollo has with UAD plugins. I am trying to get a feel for the discernable audio differences from any folks who have used both. Plus, I hate the stupid breakout snake for connectivity. Hopefully the Symphony will be out by then- also in the same both as y’all. There's a reason a lot of us have spent the money on UAD, the plugins sound phenomenal. The noise floor alone at that convention would make it impossible to properly gauge anything, even with headphones. and no perceivable latency at all - so that it sounds like they are tracking through hardware? I didn’t know that about the UA plugins vs Apogees. There's AB tests out there that prove subjective opinions? I'm about to setup a portable rig myself and it's between the apollo and element as well for me. Apogee Element 46 으로 녹음된 Zane Carney 'Better Man' - Duration: 2:08. Whether or not the OP is needs or wants those plugs is up to him decide, which is why I advised him to listen to plugins and decide himself. Sounds trivial, but it is a luxury. To me it really comes down to features. If I didn't, I might have gone the other route. Sure Apogee or Slate depend solely on native DSP but that's a benefit. Apogee Duet ... RME BabyFace Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6 Apogee Duet 2 Apogee Quartet Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 Roland Quad-Capture Apogee Element 24. The thing I dislike the most is having to plug in to an electrical outlet. That's in addition to having additional tracks for the instrumental production as well. Uad diehards really think uad plug ins are the absolute best. To the best of my knowledge, even though TB3 has 100 Watts of available power, it's distributed across any/all bus controller chips and only supplies 15 Watts downstream. I bought a used Apogee Element in the fall and was shocked with how good it sounded compared to my Apollo 8. After reading about Apogee’s new Thunderbolt version I contacted my longtime sales rep, Nate Edwards, to discuss the product. This is not being accomplished with DSP, AFAIK, or at least not in the sense that the Apollo uses DSP. And what are your thoughts on these two interfaces? Plus my fans weren't on full-blast for once, but I suspect that has something to do with thunderbolt in general and not running off bus power (keeping the computer cooler). In the studio I've recorded vocals through outboard running to Symphony MK1 with thunderbolt bridge to macbook pro with super low latency. I’ll be looking at having my setup complete, once we enter fall/winter, and I just son’t want to do that. The new Apollos are dope. Thanks for clearing that up. Just before Christmas UA came out with the Apollo Twin X and Quad X promising the same sound quality as the other X units. The Element Series takes the best of cutting-edge Apogee gear like Symphony I/O Mk II, Ensemble Thunderbolt and Groove and puts it into simple form factors. Apogee says that the Element performance is on par with the Ensemble so the conclusions apply to the Element too. Element 88 user, and a friend to many many Apollo users. Click here to login, The ability to reply to and create new discussions, Access to members-only giveaways & competitions, Interact with VIP industry experts in our guest Q&As, Access to members-only sub forum discussions, Get INSTANT ACCESS to the world's best private pro audio, Promote your eBay auctions and Reverb.com listings for free. Glad to see this thread. We have talked a great deal about the UA Apollo and Arrow range on the Expert sites over the years. Some are just using it for their portable rig, some are using them for everything. Let us just clarify, for the record, that are plenty of other options capable of delivering the results y… Popular comparisons. To my ears, it did not have much improvement sonically and did not give me significant gains in DSP compared to my Apollo 8. But guitar amp sims? How you feel about UAD-plugins has nothing to do with that. The Element 24 has a similar configuration as the Apogee Duet, at a similar price, and the Duet has greater portability and does come with physical controls built-in. I like the sound of Apogee's converters a bit better, but it's really just a matter of opinion. In the end, I went with the Element. If you have no plans to use Luna, I would for sure recommend the Apogee. What I LOVE about Apogee as a Mac user... my keyboard volume buttons still work lol. The shootout was done between the Focusrite Clarett 8preX, the Apogee Ensemble and the UAD Apollo 8p. Like many people have pointed out here, the audio quality you get from Element (or any other Apogee interface) is far superior to UA interfaces. I have the Duet now (v2), and I have to say, the software is buggy, and I find myself having to unplug/replug the interface sometimes. I find it hard to believe they don't have the tech to jam more processing power into the cards instead of just adding additional cards ad infinitum, but they have a business model that clearly works, so more power to them and their users. Also, I am guessing that the converters/mic pre amps quality of the Clarett 8preX is the same on the Clarett 2pre. Shoot Out Between Apogee Ensemble And PreSonus Quantum Thunderbolt Audio Interfaces Russ Hughes from our sister site Studio One Expert teamed up with Lee Boylan from PreSonus to run a shoot-out between the Apogee Ensemble Thunderbolt and the new Quantum Thunderbolt audio interfaces. Nice to be able to tweak the volume and other parameters from a distance. Just get the Apollo from Guitar Center for now, and return it before the extended return policy (180 days) are up. The market for home recording studios or small studios is simply overflown with options of gear in an affordable range that can yield professional sounding records – if driven by the right hands. I'm about to setup a portable rig myself and it's between the apollo and element as well for me. The product is delayed and in the meantime UA releases Luna. The reason for this is I have an Apollo 8 and was frustrated with the issues you mentioned with using Universal Audio plugins (run out of DSP so really you can only use a few). It's like asking Stephen Hawking to pick out which of two bicycles he prefers. This is just FYI- I feel I’d be better off waiting for the Symphony Desktop to be shipped.