what soundcard to go with apogee rosetta800?

E

earworm

New member
here's the story,
i use a Motu828 (mk1) and a behringer 8 channel thing with adat out so that i have 18 ins and outs

my motu starts to act weird so i'd like to sell it (and the behringer too)

for a long time i wanted an Apogee rosetta 800 but didn't have the money and i'm not sure anymore but i think it doesn't have an Adat lightpipe output?

So what i'd like to find is a simple soundcard with just a digital input, so that i can connect a rosetta800 to it, i don't really need more than 8 ins/outs anymore, not right now.

so what soundcard would you go for, maybe its a good idea to invest in a real good clock too in the future? or will a decent soundcard plus an apogee be decent enough?

thanks in advance!
 
The Rosetta 800 can be purchased with the firewire option and the soundcard completely bypassed. A clock may still be a little helpful with the Rosetta, but not much.
 
Believe it or not, many people report positive changes when introducing an external. clock with just one device. Many people even report positive changes when using a Big Ben with an Apogee converter that already uses the "Big Ben Technology". So to say that a clock would do nothing if using an Apogee is not necessarily true. Whether or not it is or isn't worth the additional $1300 however may be a whole different and more personal decision.
 
I thought most apogee gear had pretty high quality clocks in them already?
 
interesting,

but now about that Firewire option, does this mean that i can plug a rosetta in my computer without using any soundcard at all? so the rosetta becomes the soundcard? I don't know... Will Cubase recognise it?

If this works it'd be the way to go i think

and one more: do all converters have a built in clock? or only soundcards?
 
Pretty much anything that uses digital signal should have a clock of some sort built in. It's a part of the converter. As for the firewire option, I have not used any of the the new Apogee firewire add ons so I can not tell you with certainty. However, I believe that it is meant to be used to connect to your computer in such a way that your computer will see it as a sound card. I would check with Apogee or whomever you choose to buy the Rosetta from (I would reccomend Mercenary Audio) and make sure that it will function as you need it to. You could also check with Steinberg to make sure that whatever Steinberg software you are running will recognize and utilize the Rosetta properly and that there are no known bugs that may put you off with your specific setup.

There are considerably cheaper options out there, but the Apogee is a good solid start and one that can definately stay with you for a while as your signal chain improves.
 
Mercenary has demo Rosetta 800s for 2500. I bought one last year and am very pleased with it. They also double the warranty (2 years in this case). You can get the firewire option for the cost of a good sound card with ADAT. I use mine with a sound card, but will upgrade in the future to the firewire option, then I will be able to use it with a laptop for field work.
 
Aurora makes nice converters as well. The Aurora 8 sells for about $2000 and the Auroroa 16 for about $3000. You could get an Aurora 8 with a Big Ben for about $3300 and then you would already have a good solid clock should you intorduce other digital equipment in your setup in the future. Without the clock the converters will still sound better than the RME and MOTU range offerings. If budget really is an issue, the converters in stuff like the RME and MOTU equipment are not bad, just not as nice. You could get an RME Fireface for around $1400 or so. It really depends on your budget, what you expect and your specific needs.
 
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