Apogee Duet

[iangerber]

Im leaning very heavily towards purchasing the first apogee duet. I looked at the improvements to the two and the big difference to me seems to be the balanced outs.

My big question is how important is it to have balanced outs?

Since it only records two inputs at a time, my power is grounded properly, and my cables arent noisy, is it neccessary? I guess Im afraid something will bite in the ass halfway into mixing that wasnt evident in tracking.

Im looking at the apogee duet because for what Im doing I really need a quality converter as opposed to having more than two inputs. Im open to suggestions in this department.

Cheers and thanks.

 

[guitarded2]

I'm currently using the duet and while it is great especially for what i paid (less than $300 usd used) the limitations are really starting to bother me more now than before.

First and foremost its strictly MAC now and unlike the apogee one I also own there is no way around it. (linux)
The next thing is lack of midi.
Next is noise you get because of the unbalanced jacks.
Then theres the breakout cables which imho just plain down right SUCK!
Lastly is the lack of digital in so this thing is virtually un upgradable unless you want to try some kind of aggregated device mumbo jumbo.

The good thing is the AD/DA conversion is awesome and the mic pre amps are very clean. I love my duet to death and at the time thought it would be a good trade off but my mind has changed over time. So if you can live with these limitations and are 100% sure its all you will ever need go with it.