Apogee Officially Introduces 'Quartet' Desktop Audio Interface for Mac

[MacRumors]

Last week, we noted that Apogee was apparently preparing to launch a new desktop audio interface for Mac known as "Quartet", expanding upon its popular Duet 2 portable device for professional audio recording. The report included an image of the Quartet that had been prematurely posted by Apogee, but further details on the device remained unknown.




Apogee has now officially introduced the Quartet, which arrives carrying four inputs and eight outputs for a significant boost in channel capacity. The Quartet can also be paired with Apogee's Duet 2 or Ensemble product to expand the number of channels even further.

Apogee's Quartet continues to use USB 2.0 connectivity, but the company lays out its case that USB 2.0 is "more than adequate" for the Quartet's requirements in explaining why the device does not use USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt. A total of nine touchpads, three of which are configurable, offer fast access to all recording and monitoring functions of the Quartet, while the trademark aluminum controller knob carried over from the Duet offers precise level control.




The Apogee Quartet carries a list price of $1295.

Article Link: Apogee Officially Introduces 'Quartet' Desktop Audio Interface for Mac

[needfx]

I sincerely hate my gadget appetite.

Anything new & shiny becomes instantly a must-have, irrelevant of practicality, and while hard cash gets scarcer due to plastic, having control over impulses gets harder & harder.

[hukuma]

Price aside (not personally interested in that debate, as 'value' is quite a personal matter in pro audio), this looks quite useful. There have been many times when the Duet isn't enough with respect to I/O. For me, I'm not certain 4 makes my life that much easier. I'm interested to see this thing in action and compare, A/B versus the Duet. I would imagine the quality is stunning, like everything Apogee has put out.

Speaking of which...I'm having so much fun challenging myself to get great drum sounds out of my 'Mic' from Apogee...I haven't found a 'perfect' placement in my room yet, but I'm having fun trying.

[striker33]

At such a great price I think I'll pick up a couple for my Grandma.

[charlieegan3]

Apple like design with Apple like pricetag

----------

Originally Posted by striker33

At such a great price I think I'll pick up a couple for my Grandma.

Sounds like you've got one cool grandma!

[wutang61]

But can it run crysis?

[appahappa]

Looks nice. A little pricey but it's supposed to be professional equipment. If some one is really making music for living it's worth it. Just look up how much an audio interface from Metric Halo costs. (ULN8 for example)

[RodThePlod]

Originally Posted by striker33

At such a great price I think I'll pick up a couple for my Grandma.

Ha! Thanks! That put a smile on my face

Assuming you are joking, right?!

RTP.

[Ecofriend]

Wonderful devices, wish I could get one of these, but the price is so high.

[djdover]

I'd rather a dual core UA Apollo at that price! And then I'd rather just go for the quad core!

[SvK]

usb2 = high latency

DOA

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@ dj dover

I own the uAD Apollo quad
its awesome.

[entropi]

Well, if Apogee's support for Quartet is like the support for the Duet (FireWire) it will not work properly after two OS updates. So, my advice is - never update your OS after buying Quartet OR buy your audio interface from a more serious company...

[appahappa]

I tested the RME UFX once which hast both USB and FireWire and latency was the same.

Originally Posted by SvK

usb2 = high latency

DOA

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@ dj dover

I own the uAD Apollo quad
its awesome.

[carlemil]

FireWire has a higher latency than usb2 for some reason they tried to explain me on lynda.com, so I see why there probably isn't a reason to use money on thunderbolt. Then again, it already costs a lot of money for a pro system, that only prosumers or small home studios are gonna use.

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Originally Posted by MacRumors

The Apogee Quartet carries a list price of $1295.

$1295 for a USB 2.0 interface with only 4 inputs? That sounds more like a way overpriced toy than "professional" audio to me. I got a 4 input firewire interface for my own hobby project and it cost under $400 and has no latency issues.

Apogee has always been known for professional products, but there's nothing professional about using USB 2.0 with its well known latency issues and there's no excuse for it either given the availability of Thunderbolt for two years now, Firewire for the past decade and now USB 3.0 (which it won't take advantage of to reduce latency even if available). I expected a full Thunderbolt interface on their new products. This is very disappointing and does their brand name no favors, IMO. So much for the talk from the Thunderbolt fanatics a couple of years ago that said how the professional audio world was getting ready to embrace it. I guess they're still in the thinking about it stage.

Originally Posted by entropi

Well, if Apogee's support for Quartet is like the support for the Duet (FireWire) it will not work properly after two OS updates. So, my advice is - never update your OS after buying Quartet OR buy your audio interface from a more serious company...

Given Apple's aggressive OS updating in recent years, any product that doesn't keep up with those updates in a timely fashion is going to suffer that much more. "Pro" products should get more support, not less.

[musiciscool]

they should have released a more reliable 'maestro' instead! I'd like to trust Apogee that the product will work as well as it looks, but with the duet I have to force quit the 'duetdaemon' and plug/unplug several times until it finally decides to work right. Very unprofessional to have to jiggle and cajole your gear for 5 minutes to work correctly. Same thing on macbook pro & new imac.
Happened on Snow Leopard, Lion & Mountain Lion. Fix the maestro before you release more hardware!

[VirtualRain]

As I said last week, get one of these for a fraction of the price... great sound, quality pre's, excellent ergonomics and fits nicely with the Mac... I have the 2x2 version of this and it's impressive!



http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc..._O_42_USB.html

[needfx]

Originally Posted by VirtualRain

As I said last week, get one of these for a fraction of the price... great sound, quality pre's, excellent ergonomics and fits nicely with the Mac... I have the 2x2 version of this and it's impressive!

Image

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc..._O_42_USB.html

can I have both? do they work with photoshop??

[spoonie1972]

this earns a solid "meh" from me.

[John.B]

I'll give Apogee one thing: They make some of the nicest mobile pres in the business.

I just worry that that they'll eventually release a USB 3.0 version that won't work with older versions of OSX, like they did with the FireWire version of the Duet and Mountain Lion.

Originally Posted by SvK

usb2 = high latency

DOA

The problem with USB 2.0 was that A/D converters could get starved for CPU cycles and you'd get the Rice Krispies triplets (Snap, Crackle, and Pop) in your tracks. Fortunately, multi-core processors have fixed that for most A/D converters of really any level of quality (all the way down to most MBox hardware).

I still think pres still make the biggest differences in the audio interfaces today.

Originally Posted by djdover

I'd rather a dual core UA Apollo at that price! And then I'd rather just go for the quad core!

Don't forget to squirrel away some cash for the optional Thunderbolt module that hasn't been released yet. That baby is on my wish list!

Originally Posted by VirtualRain

As I said last week, get one of these for a fraction of the price... great sound, quality pre's, excellent ergonomics and fits nicely with the Mac... I have the 2x2 version of this and it's impressive!

Image

I'd like to A/B one of those against the Apogee Quartet and see if I couldn't pick out the Apogee in a double-blind listening test. One thing about the Apogee stuff is that, when it works (!!!), it integrates almost seamlessly to Logic, etc.

[appahappa]

Originally Posted by MagnusVonMagnum

$1295 for a USB 2.0 interface with only 4 inputs? That sounds more like a way overpriced toy than "professional" audio to me. I got a 4 input firewire interface for my own hobby project and it cost under $400 and has no latency issues.

It depends how good those preamps are. You can easily pay 1000$ for a single good preamp.

[vpro]

yeahhhhhhhhh

happy upgrade time for Fall 2012 and my release of 4 albums for
Spring 2013

shipping this week
1-apogee duet II
1-apogee quartet
1-2.7Ghz/16Gb/768SSD retina mbp
2-thunderbolt displays


finally after using 1998 hp pavilion
and 2007 17" mbp

i was really hoping apple updated their 17 inch mbp line
shame
but lets give revolutionary technology a try

(happy girl this week)

well, i'm always happy as long as everyone is happy too

[hissyfit]

I'm a recording artist and I so want one of these.

[vpro]

Originally Posted by hissyfit

I'm a recording artist and I so want one of these.

nice!

i haven't made any musician friends on here yet
share some of your work please!

my profile on here has a link if you are interested
will share more once all my upgrades get here

thanks

[Antzy]

Originally Posted by John.B

I just worry that that they'll eventually release a USB 3.0 version that won't work with older versions of OSX, like they did with the FireWire version of the Duet and Mountain Lion.

What do you mean with that? I've got a Duet and Mountain Lion (running on a late-2009 iMac) and it works just fine.