Apogee Duet vs. Edirol UA-20?

[gsetzer]

I'm about ready to start recording vocals on an electronic music project that I've been working on for a while.

 

Currently my audio interface is a five year old Edirol UA-20:

 

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb03/articles/edirolua20.asp

 

I've been reading a lot about the Apogee Duet:

 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/520946-REG/Apogee_Electronics_DUET_Duet_FireWire_Audio.html

 

The final output will be for Audio CD.

 

People are raving about the Apogee. I could manage the Apogee financially (kind of)--but I'm wondering if I can get the same quality with my Edirol. I don't assume I'd need more than 24 bit for CD.

 

I don't know what difference the Apogee's balanced XLR inputs would have compared to my unbalanced 1/4 phone jacks. In terms of comparing the specs, I'm not specialized enough to decode them.

 

Will the quality improve enough to justify the price, or will it be difficult for an ear to discern the difference between the Apogee and the Edirol?

 

Thanks.

[triplets]

The Apogee Duet will pretty much smoke the Edirol.

It's the best sounding interface in that price range.

[denitronik]

I agree with triplets the Apogee is great (I have one and love it),

the edirol doesn't even compare.

[hwt]

+1 on apogee duet.

[hamdog]

i have to agree with the above posters. i've had my duet for three years and it makes all my music (and my shitty voice) sound excellent.

[hamdog]

and i have to add, i just looked at the edirol you have:

 

Currently my audio interface is a five year old Edirol UA-20:

 

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb03/articles/edirolua20.asp

 

and that was the first interface i bought (albeit a much older version).

 

the duet will blow you away compared to that thing

[gsetzer]

Thanks for your input everyone. The Edirol's been good to me--I'll hang on to it for the midi jacks--but I think I'll upgrade to the apogee for my vocals.

 

Much appreciated!

[BadOrange]

Duet is good but a little overpriced. But I suppose having the name Apogee is worth something.

 

I would recommend the echo AF8 as an alternative. Same DAC converters as the RME FF800. More features, similar sound quality and you won't notice a difference unless you have really high end monitors

[amorris]

I have to say that the Duet is a good piece but I ran into problems with the analog levels out. could never really get a +4 level. 2 units 2 owners (my buddy has the same issue) same issue.

 

also, the headphone out draws its power from the firewire and Ive had it crash Logic when its output got too hot. especially troublesome with LOUD electric gtrs. ( imagine our surprise when ever gtr player hit a loud chord the system crashed. totally repeatable)

 

otherwise, the tracks it made were fantastic.

[simpleton]

I have to say that the Duet is a good piece but I ran into problems with the analog levels out. could never really get a +4 level. 2 units 2 owners (my buddy has the same issue) same issue.

 

also, the headphone out draws its power from the firewire and Ive had it crash Logic when its output got too hot. especially troublesome with LOUD electric gtrs. ( imagine our surprise when ever gtr player hit a loud chord the system crashed. totally repeatable)

 

otherwise, the tracks it made were fantastic.

 

hey amorris,

 

could you expand on these problems a bit?

i've been considering a Duet for my live rig and both the problems you mention could be serious for me.

 

as to the levels...so it was lower than expected? what issues did this cause?

 

and the headphone output causing Logic to crash!? this could be a deal-breaker for me because i need the headphone output (sometimes loud).

 

thanks

[amorris]

levels were low. I used the unit into logic at first but I needed more outputs so I used its preamps to go to another interface. the analog out levels were quite low. tried the Maestro +4/-10 setup and never got good levels. the levels in maestro and internally in logic were fine. even looked inside box for trimpots but found none i could adjust. dealt with it and the tracks sound fine. just low.

 

then recorded gtrs straight to internal logic and it crashed everytime he turned it up. now he plays VERY loud and the phones were cranked to get it above the bleed through the phones. it would crash. I remedied it with a dedicated headphone amp.

[simpleton]

any other Duet users having these problems?

[denitronik]

I have a Duet and can't complain. I have had no problems

 

Don't expect an output of +4 from the Duet; it has an active unbalanced output (no output transformer to provided the balanced output) which means that it's at least 3dB lower that an active balanced output.

 

Most audio equipment have unbalanced outputs with an added unity gain stage with inverse phase to provide the negative voltage.

Bob Katz (famous mastering engineer) actually removes those extra gain stages from his pro equipment because they introduce unwanted noise. He prefers to have unbalanced connections than the extra noise (and sometimes phasing inaccuracies).

 

For me, my active monitors have plenty of gain to compensate and blow my ears in when I push the output full tilt.

 

The Duet is a great sounding interface, I noticed a difference just listening to older recordings through it. More detail and space.

And the sound of the material I recorded with it is great, the microphone pre-amps at top notch.

[amorris]

agreed unit sounds fantastic. but my out levels were a lot lower than -3. closer to -10. (this with unit set to +4 not -10, set to -10 was that much lower)

 

to take advantage of the unit's stellar sound qualities, it is not unreasonable to use the digital outputs to the DAW and add the headphone amp to your setup. I was just using 2 DAWs in an unorthodox home/pro setup.