Apogee Ensemble Reviews

[brandondrury]

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Apogee Ensemble Description
The Ensemble Multichannel Audio Interface from Apogee delivers high performance converters, pristine preamps, and tight integration with Core Audio. You can use the Ensemble easily with Logic, MOTU Digital Performer, Steinberg Cubase, Bias Peak, Propellerhead Reason, Ableton Live, or any professional Macintosh recording application that supports Core Audio to make flawless recordings. The Ensemble is the first professional audio interface that is all digitally controlled and designed specifically for Apple computers and Logic.

The Ensemble features 36 simultaneously available audio channels with 8 channels of Apogee's legendary A/D/A conversion and 4 transparent, digitally controlled 75dB mic preamps. It also has 8 channels of ADAT I/O, 2 channels of S/PDIF coax and optical I/O, and FireWire connectivity to and from the computer. When you get an Ensemble, you also get premium Apogee technologies such as Soft Limit, UV22HR, and Intelliclock. Soft Limit ensures your signal gets the maximum digital input level without overs, UV22HR gives you a superior dither from 24-bit resolution down to 16-bit, and Intelliclock is an advanced, dual-stage clocking tool. These technologies combined with converters that set the standard for the audio industry make Ensemble an ideal choice for professionals seeking a high-definition, integrated solution that's easy to use.

Ensemble is the first and only multichannel audio interface that is fully integrated into Logic Pro. With Ensemble, everything from mic pre and output gain to sample and bit rate selection are controllable from within the Apogee Control Panel in Logic.

[Jamie Garner]

Quality: 9
I've owned quite a few digital audio interfaces- digi001, motu828, mbox1, mbox 2 pro, edirol ua-2, gina, alesis usb mixer, presonus digimax.... I think that's all. Oh wait, line 6 toneport ux1.
Anyhow, i have enough experience with them to know good from bad, and the ensemble is GOOD. i bought it primarily to get good a/d and d/a. I didn't expect to get such high qualty preamps!
In the first 6 months i had it (i bought it very soon after it was released) a lot of problems with its drivers- i think they were in beta even longer than that. I never questioned its quality but i did wonder if i'd bought into a bad product.
After the release of the final drivers, not a single problem linked to the ensemble. It's dual (independant) headphone amps are very clean. The maestro soft mixer is great, tho i can run logic with such low latency i don't need to use maestro.
I have 2 ua 610 preamps and a great river nv1 running line in, and in a/b'ing with the apogee preamps, i find nothing lacking. The 4 d.i.'s are also excellent, tho the nv1 is better at that, no surprise.
I like being able to control the preamps from inside logic, too.
When i bought it, there weren't many hi-end audio boxes around. Now there is a fantastic selection; the stuff from tc/focusrite/rme/etc makes it hard to justify spending $2k on an ensemble, but my results are so nice i have no thoughts of regret.

Reliability: 9
Never had to contact apogee.

Overall Rating: 7
I would buy this again (if i could!), but as i said above, there are a lot of great choices now. I might recommend the duet to others, but not the ensemble.