Apogee Duet 2 Audio Interface for Mac

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $595.00
Sale Price: $495.00
Today's Bonus: 17% Off

• USB 2, 0 audio with 24-bit/192kHz A/D and D/A conversion
• 2 Analog inputs with world-class mic preamps and selectable 48v phantom power
• 4 outputs, Independent speaker and headphone outs
• Full color OLED display
• Apogee Soft Limit Technology

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This beautiful device has exceeded my expectations in a huge way. I can now record anywhere using my mid-2011 Macbook Air, rather than being stuck in my garage studio. In my studio I use a PC with an Apogee AD16x for A/D conversion, with high-end outboard preamps (Neve 1272, Grace 201, and Telefunken V72), and vintage mics. I've been recording for over 20 years, and I've gotten better digital recordings plugging mics straight into the Duet 2 than using any other setup in the past. I am completely surprised that I don't even have to bring my bulky and expensive outboard preamps with me, because the Duet's are amazing.

+ Recording quality! I knew the Apogee converters would be great from past experience, but I am totally blown away by the mic preamps as well. Warm, smooth, clean, airy, and every other useless audiophile adjective I can summon.

+ Output quality. I plug my headphones in and listen to music all day while working, and the sound is dazzlingly smooth and dynamic. I no longer use my expensive tube headphone amp, because the direct headphone out of the Duet sounds so beautiful on it's own.

+ Easy setup and great compatibility

+ USB Bus powered (even when phantom powering two +48V mics)

+ Direct monitoring allows zero latency monitoring during recording

+ Two stereo outputs for more flexibility

+ Two configurable touchpads are very useful

+ Well-designed color OLED screen

+ Rubber base keeps the unit from sliding around

+ Looks great and matches well with the build quality and aesthetic of Apple products

No Windows support

Plastic black surface scratches easily I need to fine a nice case to protect it during travel

I'd prefer physical buttons over the touchpads

The solid build and quality comes at a small price in terms of size and weight. It's certainly portable, but you might find it's a little bigger and heavier than it looks in photos.

Maestro software sometimes has trouble detecting the Duet, even though the soundcard is working

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I would agree with all the other reviews here that the unit really does sound amazing! I use this unit strictly as a D/A because it really does make that much of a difference. I primarily use the Focusrite ISA One as my single Mic Pre. Whenever I need to do stereo recordings, (rare), I then use the Duet 2 as my Pre. It does well here too, but the ISA does give me better tone as a Pre. I honestly think its the combination of the two -but I digress.

The Duet 2 has a steep learning curve. There would be several sessions where I would literally spend an hour trying to figure out the signal flow, because I could see the signal getting to the unit and not getting into Logic Pro. On some occasions it was because some MAC update knocked out the drivers, and new drivers needed to be installed from Apogee. On other occasions, I had to reseat the USB -regardless it is NOT intuitive.

At this point, several months of use, bugs, and frustration, everything has been going smooth. I really love the sound quality I get out if this unit. I just hope it last longer than my Apogee One.

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As you must've already read in many other glowing reviews, this review too will state the obvious that you will truly HEAR THE DIFFERENCE in the sound quality once you run your guitar tone or vocals through the Duet 2. The ad da converter and the limiter does an exceptional job at smoothening the audio input and enriching its overall sound and quality. You will be happy with how much better your tone, and textures sound. I was previously an M Audio Firewire 410 loyalist, but after the Duet 2, I wonder why I waited so long to get this baby. The difference in quality of sound seems every bit worth the $599 I paid for it. Plus, the unit with its OLED and build quality feels & looks very good

My only problem with this unit and the reason I could not give it a full 5 stars is because the on board touch sensitive buttons that can be user assignable are inconsistent and there is clearly something going wrong with them. I encountered the problem of being in the middle of recording session and have my monitoring output get completely cut off (in other words muted) on its own. I won't even be touching the unit or be anywhere near it and would be recording a part and all of a sudden, with a mind of its own, the Duet 2 mutes my output. I've metaphorically banged my head against a wall trying to figure out why this peculiar and rather stupid problem keeps occurring, and obviously went into Maestro to fix the issue (whichever way I could). BUt Maestro 2 is so minimal that it provides no real access to any component of the user defined buttons with which this problem could be truly corrected.

I even went ahead to email Duet's customer service and the crazy thing was that I was expecting a detailed response/ troubleshooting resolution to this issue and instead they told me something that I had already discovered through hit and trial. So if I removed the option of "mute" to one of the 2 user defined buttons, the problem of involuntary muting goes away. Please understand this is not a resolution to the issue, this is merely a temporary fix. So for me for all practical purposes the second button can never be used to assign the mute function. Moreover the other bit of disappointment is that there aren't really many other groundbreaking functions that really can be assigned to these on board buttons. They seem gimicky in how little they really are capable of doing.

Anyway, Apogee never got back to me with a true solution, but rather just wrote to me about that temp fix. I was kind of disappointed with that and their lack of knowledge on the issue. For a company that supposedly is doing everything right and making such a great product as the Duet 2, I was sad to see how it has this glitch that cannot be resolved.

Second minor problem I noticed with the unit is that the jacks where the USB cable goes does not seem very sturdy in its build quality. If you touch it, it definitely moves and has a considerable play in it. Not that its making any difference to my sound, but it gives a very flimsy feel of something that would eventually come apart with time. At least that's how flimsy it seems.

To round up I would just say, that if you're looking for a portable audio interface that gives exceptional sound quality output and integrates seamlessly with the mac then I'd say go for it. But if $599 seems an absurd price point coupled by the issue I described above and the fact that at the end of the day this interface works only on your good ol "high end" mac computers and not PCs or Linux based computers, then this may just seem like an "excessive" expenditure for you. Considering there are a plethora of AI's available in the market for much cheaper and which the do a great job too.

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Hello, bad news here, so I'm running the DUET 2 with my iMac (2.8 i7 8gb ram) OsX 10.8.1 (latest Mountain Lion update), a disaster, clicks and pops are unbearable. I can't find a working flow because of this, I've been in contact with Apogee for more than 2 weeks now and I think we're just exchanging e-mails for nothing really. I'm pretty sure they know what's wrong but there's probably bureaucratic stuff going on with Apple. What I mean is that the tech from Apogee told me they don't even do DRIVERS anymore, their units now depend on Apples DRIVERS!!! so they say. It's quiet amusing that they advertise so much about catching creativity and whatnot, yet I'm not even able to concentrate on my work. BTW I didn't have any clicks at all with my Mbox Pro, right before changing for the Duet 2, and I was using the same system. Clicks may not appear right when you open a fresh new session, but they will happen, the you'll have to reboot over and over. You simply can't work like this.

My first impressions were that it was a very small improvement over it's predecessor, but after a few weeks of using the Duet 2 I've really got to say that it's better in every way then the Original. I really like how much louder it is. I can crank everything up without worrying about noise at all. I mainly record Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, and Saxophone and I love how it doesn't color my recordings at all. I get a truly revealing sound through this little guy.

Screen/Buttons:

The OLED Screen is bright enough and the Buttons are extremely functional. Both have improved my workflow.

Headphone out:

Listening to music with a pair of Grado RS2i headphones is an amazing experience in general, but I've heard a marked improvement when I use them with the Duet 2. I love that you can separate the headphone out from the Monitor outs for two separate mixes (finally).

Latency/Stability/Software:

HUGE improvements from the old model. Much more stable drivers and lower latency. I've really enjoyed how much more power the Maestro 2 software gives you over the Duet 2. With my old Duet I often times encountered issue with hissing, pops and audio cutout. I would then have to reset my device or my system to resolve the issues. Traditionally in my experience USB has been more stable than Firewire. I had my doubts about the switch they made, but it's been much more enjoyable recording without the issues that firewire always had with the original Duet.

Breakout Cable:

The new Breakout Cable is fantastic because you'll only ever have two things connected at any given time so they reduced the amount of cable/clutter for that exact purpose and streamlined the XLR and 1/4" connectors into one. Less mess with the same functionality as before!

Build Quality:

It's not bad at all build wise. Just as heavy as the Original and much more appealing aesthetically. I'll admit that everyone expected the screen to be glass, but it is in fact plastic. Some people have a problem with this. I don't.

Sound Quality:

Some prefer a warmer/colored sound, but I really enjoy an accurate sound that reveals the truth about my recording. Some won't be pleased with the lower end on the Duet 2 when recording (i think it's fine for it's price, if you want something better then pay more), but it provides a very accurate response to higher frequencies.

Overall:

Louder, clearer/cleaner and sexier than the Original Duet, while providing more functionality, stability and a larger feature set as well.