[daddydoom]

I have been using an Apogee duet for some time now for my macbook pro. I really do like it ease of use, but earlier this year I bought the Bryston B100 with the built in DAC. I want to utilize the DAC with my Mac and do away  with the duet, because of the lack of a s/pdif out.

I have been looking at things like the off ramp and such, but nowhere on this site does anyone discuss the Apogee line of equipment. Which is made just to work with Mac. I know it's really good stuff. Is  it taboo in the highend audio world to use Apogee. I was thinking about using there mini dac and big ben clock.

Any thoughts

Matt

[Crimson]

Why not? 

I have Apogee's Mini Dac (fire wire) in my arsenal, as well as another pro dac, as do quite a few other enthusiasts (owners of Apopgee, Benchmark, RME, Metric Halo, Weiss, Lavry, etc.). There are, IMO, two issues that have made it 'difficult' for a lot of good pro dacs to make it into the audiophile market:
1. Most have +4dBu outputs
2. The cheaper stuff (<$500) is usually not up to snuff, whereas there are a some really good values in the audiophile market (Scott Nixon, MHDT, etc.).

[daddydoom]

Crimson

Thanks. that is good to know.

I'm not sure just how i am going to connect yet.

Matt

[RichardS]

My (generalized) take:
The pro world and the audiophile world are worlds apart without much overlapping. Neither generally have much respect for the other side, almost like Democrats vs. Republicans. The pro guys tend to be suspicious of cables and tubes and efforts to make recordings sound 'pleasant.' Audiophiles veer away from any harsh sounds and like exotic parts and tweaks. I think we can both learn a bit from each other.

I'm redoing my (amateur) studio set-up with a new Macbook Pro and some ADAM speakers, using Logic Pro. I'm attracted to using the Apogee Duet -- it's a lot of technology and sound for the price, and firewire is a good-sounding way to get audio out of the computer. But then I have a North Star DAC and a BV Audio preamp that I'm not using, which probably sound better than what's in the Apogee (at least they should, for the price difference). Of course, then I'll have to use a Toslink out of the computer, or get a USB-coax coverter, like the offramp you mentioned. Right now, I'm leaning toward using the Toslink and getting a jitter box (the Big Ben is probably great, but too expensive) to go before the DAC.

I plan to borrow a friend's Duet next month and I'll compare. I'll post my findings.

[daddydoom]

RichardS

I think you will be surprised how well the duet sounds. It does just about everything. I use it to convert vinyl that has not been digitized with garage band, but mostly for listening. The headphone output sounds nice too.

And please post a reply. I would like to hear your opinion.

Matt

[RTRluvr]

My (generalized) take:
The pro world and the audiophile world are worlds apart without much overlapping. Neither generally have much respect for the other side, almost like Democrats vs. Republicans. The pro guys tend to be suspicious of cables and tubes and efforts to make recordings sound 'pleasant.' Audiophiles veer away from any harsh sounds and like exotic parts and tweaks. I think we can both learn a bit from each other.

You are completely wrong about the tubes part. Tubes are found within many highly regarded mics and outboard gear. You'll also find that mastering engineers tend to blur the lines.