Anyone Using Apogee Ensemble? How Does It Sound?

I use an RME Fireface 800 which is a serious bit of kit and is a direct competitor to the Apogee Ensemble. I would strongly recommend you look at it as well as the Ensemble before making any decisions. I used to use an M-Audio Audiophile 192 before I got the Fireface and believe me the difference in sound quality is outstanding.

I used to have an M-Audio Audiophile, and yes, the difference is quite amazing.
Since the last update by Apogee my Ensemble is sounding and working great.
Tech support was good when I needed it, and the updates are quite amazing to watch, it is like your own little light show.

I use it with my MacbookPro.


Hope that helps


Cheers
-Allan


MacPro 3GHz, Macbook Pro, mac mini 1.42, Ibook g4 1.2, Mac OS X (10.4.8) Apogee Ensemble

Hi,

I have the Apogee Rosetta 800 which is a more expensive unit and at the time that I bought the Ensemble I had the MOTU 2408 MK3 unit and believe it or not the MOTU converters sounded better than the Ensemble. The Ensemles lows are extremely muddy and that highs are muted - so you can imagine what that will do to your prospective of the sound you are mixing...ugly!

I wouldn't buy it - in fact I returned my Ensemble it was that bad sounding. Function wise I liked it.

Hope that helps

Hi,

I have the Apogee Rosetta 800 which is a more
expensive unit and at the time that I bought the
Ensemble I had the MOTU 2408 MK3 unit and believe it
or not the MOTU converters sounded better than the
Ensemble. The Ensemles lows are extremely muddy and
that highs are muted - so you can imagine what that
will do to your prospective of the sound you are
mixing...ugly!

I wouldn't buy it - in fact I returned my Ensemble it
was that bad sounding. Function wise I liked it.

Hope that helps

Well all this is highly subjective but those MOTU conveters are lousy IMHO and if the Ensemble sounded worse that something was seriously wrong with it or the way it was set up.

I have to say that comment from csiaudio simply does not make sense to me at all!

Listening to CD's though my ensemble just makes me smile and I believe you would only better it by going for a much more expensive unit. Any unit in this price range is going to sound pretty good.

I had a metric halo 2882 and a ULN2 to A/B compare it to and I felt the ensemble was at least equal or better.

The ensemble is a very decent piece of kit! I can understand folk not finding the ensemble suitable for their needs. I can understand someone using $4000 stereo D/A's in preference to the ensemble. I cannot understand anyone returning the unit because it sounded "extremely muddy" compared to a Motu 2408!

To say an ensemble would adversely affect your mixing is just plain daft, and very misleading.

I have one now and am satisfied with the sound..better than motu 896 I have.....the only kick I have is an occasional click..but I do the things Apogee recommends and I usually am fine afterwards...... have fun..!

What kind of latency are you getting? What is your set-up?

There's been a very good discussion over at gearslutz. Apogee themselves are taking part...
http://gearslutz.com/board/showthread.php?t=85743&highlight=apogee+ensemble

Other good threads too if you do a search.

Apogee are currently providing the driver as Apple's firewire driver is ermm... unsuitable.

It is essential that all Ensemble users make sure they are using the latest software from apogee. they've been updating it every month for the past few months. I must say all my problems (well more like annoying niggles really)have gone since the last update - I'm not using every mode/config available of course.

Latency is pretty insignificant compared to the latency your daw provides due to plugins etc. I've just done a session this morning with a mandolin player. With PDC in Logic switched off for the busses I could still use plenty of plugins/VI's without problems (for his playing). Buffer is set to 128k right now. macpro's are just mind blowing!

As I type this I'm listening to Anoushk Shankar on CD through my ensemble and mackie 824's. Godd ddamn it sounds good:-)

There's been a very good discussion over at
gearslutz. Apogee themselves are taking part...
http://gearslutz.com/board/showthread.php?t=85743&high
light=apogee+ensemble

Apogee are currently providing the driver as Apple's
firewire driver is ermm... unsuitable.

Thomas, all the Apogee Firewire drivers, including the latest beta, are written by Apple.

hi there synesthesian...glad to see your last post on calling apogee...I have been doing it backwards...turning on ensemble first then computer...been getting pops and clicks .... glad you made the comment ! thanxs

Would you guys mind sharing what kind of latency your getting with this unit???

What are your buffers set at?
96khz, 192?

Can you monitor all 4-mic channels with software monitoring on without a noticable delay?