Apogee Duet vs Duet 2

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rimisrandma

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Is the Apogee Duet 2 a step up from the duet? The duet 2 is SUPPOSEDLY faster, but it is usb which packets info as opposed to firewire which is only a little bit slower, but overall better data transfer. The original duet is firewire, so why the change to usb and is it better? Anyone try either or both?
 
there is no difference between firewire and usb2 when it comes to recording devices.

none
 
well, they are slightly different in the way they prioritise streams of audio data. However, unless you are at a particularly high track count, or are trying to do too much with one cpu/harddrive you won't notice any difference.
 
arcadeko said:
there is no difference between firewire and usb2 when it comes to recording devices.

none
Click to expand...

Take 3 minutes and read this;

FireWire vs USB | Technibble

fw is peer to peer architecture and doesn't require a cpu

usb is a master slave relationship and requires a cpu to run to communication.

Wouldn't usb technically slow down the audio chain even though it is rated faster?
 
There isn't enough throughput in recording audio to make a difference. Even at 16 simultaneous tracks at 24 bit your not going to have any noticeable difference between FW and USB2.
 
The issue is having other devices running on the same bus. If you plug in a usb harddrive, a usb stick and a usb interface, the data stream in the USB bus is much more likely to break up the audio stream from the interface with chunks of data from other places.

The great thing about firewire is that it prioritises longer streams of audio data without them being broken up by other sources.

That's why people choose firewire over usb, not the raw data rate.

I actually rarely use firewire stuff because USB is perfectly adequate, much more widely adopted and generally cheaper. If you commit to buying a firewire interface, then it's way less likely that you can just turn up anywhere with it and plug it straight into any machine you find, but you could almost guarantee it with a USB one.
 
I will change my position from there being no difference "none", to no appreciable difference, "none". :P

I see people getting all hung up on Firewire versus USB 2 and it's so negligible and there are so many other things that actually do have an effect on recording that it just adds unnecessary noise to the decision on what equipment to get. There may be a few special circumstances where it would make a difference, but I can't see it having any effect on a newb getting their first system other than making it more confusing.

So to stomp that fire out I say there is no difference. Sure it's not perfectly accurate, but in these circumstances I say that to remove one variable from the equation.
 
I asked the same question in another thread.
One of my questions was what was the difference in "balanced" and "unbalanced." Duet 1 is unbalanced, Duet 2 is balanced.

McMajik said:
Balanced and unbalanced outputs/inputs are different ways of sending a signal along an XLR cable. Balanced is superior and is much more resistant to interference and noise.
Click to expand...

That's all I got, but the brief description explains enough, I believe.
 
Firewire can be daisy chained, not so with USB. 1 FW port can run 2 hard drives and my interface.
can't do that with USB except for adding a hub.

Nevertheless, the raw speed of FireWire is unbeatable by USB. Even the USB 2.0 standard is unable to beat the real world performance of earlier FireWire 400.
Though technically USB 2.0 is a 480 Mbit/s interface and FireWire 400 is a 400 Mbit/s interface, but many read and write tests to the same hard drive using FireWire and USB 2.0 shows that FireWire 400 is still significantly faster than USB 2.0.

Duet 2, Balanced outs
Duet, Unbalanced outs

by the way, unbalanced does not use XLR connectors as only 2 wires are used in unbalanced (1 lead and a shield). same as an instrument cable. Balanced cables are TRS or XLR connectors. (2 leads, and shield)
 
Uhdinator said:
Firewire can be daisy chained, not so with USB. 1 FW port can run 2 hard drives and my interface.
can't do that with USB except for adding a hub.

Nevertheless, the raw speed of FireWire is unbeatable by USB. Even the USB 2.0 standard is unable to beat the real world performance of earlier FireWire 400.
Though technically USB 2.0 is a 480 Mbit/s interface and FireWire 400 is a 400 Mbit/s interface, but many read and write tests to the same hard drive using FireWire and USB 2.0 shows that FireWire 400 is still significantly faster than USB 2.0.
Click to expand...

This illustrates my point perfectly. While all this may be true, none of it is relevant to a noobs first recording rig. :D
 
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arcadeko said:
there is no difference between firewire and usb2 when it comes to recording devices.

none
Click to expand...

There's actually an incredible difference between the two. As rimisrandma pointed out in their link, Firewire is not dependent on the CPU, while USB is.

Firewire drives have their own controller chips, so the data transfer is rock solid. When it says up to 400mbps, that's essentially what you get. Any slower speeds are a result another variable, such as the disk write speed on either end of the cable.

However, USB 2.0, which is 480mbps......you will seldom get that speed. If you have ever used a USB 2.0 audio interface on a session you would notice considerable latency with only a few tracks.

This happens because more tracks & plug-ins = more CPU processing. As soon as the CPU has to focus on the session, USB performance will suffer because it is dependent on the CPU. On top of this, the same USB cable, when tracking is carrying raw audio into the computer, and providing playback of the session back out simultaneously. This is often a lot of work for most computers, and as a result the USB speed is drastically reduced as the session grows.

These problems are non-existent when using Firewire. The only time you will run into this problem on Firewire is if you actually max out the 400mbps bandwidth, which you most likely will not.

It's common misunderstanding since the marketing for these products essentially sells USB2 as a 480mbps technology, and Firewire as 400mbps. Those numbers just don't translate to real-life scenarios.

Hope that clears it up for some people.
 
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