audio out, usb/firewire, apogee duet

I don't know why this should be so, but most popular interfaces seem to have only two Inputs. Make sure when deciding that you get an interface with the number of Inputs you will be needing. Possibly not relevant to your particular requirements, but a quick tip that has saved some tears before now…

I would STRONGLY advise against the Apogee Duet. Many people, including myself, have been burned by this unit, as it makes a huge amount of hiss and self-noise. When you send it in to Apogee, at your own expense, they send it back, over and over again, with exactly the same problem, hoping that you will just give up in frustration.

Search this forum, or google, "Apogee duet hiss", and you will read all the horror stories.

On the contrary to the above post... I would highly recommend an Apogee product, over pretty much anything else in the price range. A very small percentage of people claim to have noise issues with the Duet, and in my opinion it comes down to your entire setup and is not an inherent problem with the Duet. I use good equipment and a power conditioner, my Duet is clear as crystal.

Regardless, this so-called issue would be irrelevant to your live application... but I think the Duet may be overkill for what you are trying to do. Not to mention with 2 laptops you would need to buy 2 Duets at $500 each (or as low as $400 depending on where you shop/who you know).

I don't know if there is a better option (regarding the two interfaces) for your particular application, but yes it will significantly improve sound quality.

You may want to research the Apogee ONE... it's not out yet, but I believe it comes out later this month and it's basically a smaller, single-channel version of the Duet. It's not released yet so nobody really knows how the quality is going to be, but they're supposed to be $250 each... that might be a great option because it sounds like you just need a couple of good, portable D-A converters.

Edit: By the way the Duet is firewire and the ONE is USB.

Message was edited by: AecDuck

Another vote the Duet...fantastic sound.

The only "hiss" here is when I read yet another "ad nauseum" post from the Logic Forums resident "Duet Hater"....

My duet sounds fantastic.





Keep in mind that out of the handful of people posting complaints, there are thousands out there happily using the duet. People only post when having problems, so if you search the forum looking for a problem, you'll find it.

Keeping on topic though... the OP is looking for an interface strictly for output purposes. The Duet is a great little peice of hardware, but wouldn't it be overkill for this application? The Apogee ONE would be a cheaper option but is there an interface out there that can output from two different sources? I would suggest posting this question on the MainStage board to see if there's a better option, seems like you'd find more people there who use their rigs for live audio. See what they use as an output device.