Post by lpedrum on Nov 6, 2014 9:35:01 GMT -6
Per request, I'm starting a thread on the new Ensemble. I was close to pulling the trigger on a Symphony i/o 8x8, but since Apogee just put out a new Ensemble I thought I'd see how it stacked up. I had the opportunity yesterday to go down to Alto Music in NYC. Shane Koss is an old friend and someone I turn to when I need expertise regarding converters/software/computers. He let me know that John from Apogee would be there giving a demonstration of the new Ensemble so I made the trip. (If you're not familiar with Alto NCY, its not a typical store but rather a small studio with recording gear set up for listening.)
The specs of the new Ensemble can easily be found online. It's an impressive box, and if someone's looking for a do-it-all unit I think it'd be hard to beat. One great feature is that the 8 mic pres have an actual hardware bypass, so there's no mystery about that issue. Plus in addition to the 8 in 8 out, it has an extra pair of monitor outs (wish the Symphony had that.) With two TB ports built in and spec-wise a faster round trip latency than even the Symphony with TB it's really a nice box.
But what I really wanted was to hear the two units head to head. First up was the Steely Dan track Babylon Sisters. The Symphony sounded amazing with a beautiful clarity. I'm not stating anything new--most folks rave about the sound of the Symphony. When we switched to the Ensemble playing the same track the differences were not immediately evident to me. This is not the proverbial "sounds like someone threw a blanket over the monitors" situation. The Ensemble was impressive and to fear that great music couldn't be made with it would be silly. On some level it's not really fair to compare a company's top end unit to its other products. But I will. To my ears the Symphony seemed to have a little wider stereo field and slightly more natural sounding mid range. It's dynamic range was evident too when the Babylon Sisters chorus kicks in -- there was and extra oomph of dynamics that wasn't quite there with the Ensemble.
Next up was a track off of the Robert Plant Allison Krauss record. (more akin to the type of music I work on.) The Ensemble more than held it's own, but I felt that the big smokey sounding bass drum had a little more dimension and clarity on the Symphony. Open-tuned bass drums are tricky to record and hear correctly but the Symphony was kinda eye opening to me in that regard.
Ten years ago the New Ensemble would have been a no-brainer for me with its 8 nice pres, super fast TB and Apogee quality conversion. But lately I moved into a hybrid set up and have my own pres now. In the end the right Apogee box for me is the Symphony and being able to tap into it's dynamic range when mixing is very exciting to me. I want to thank John and Shane for giving me the opportunity to compare. I would recommend the Ensemble to anyone who's looking to move up from a smaller cheaper box, especially if they have a need to be portable--it's a very impressive sounding product with a lot of options built in. But for where I'm at in my career right now the Symphony is the best choice for me.
The specs of the new Ensemble can easily be found online. It's an impressive box, and if someone's looking for a do-it-all unit I think it'd be hard to beat. One great feature is that the 8 mic pres have an actual hardware bypass, so there's no mystery about that issue. Plus in addition to the 8 in 8 out, it has an extra pair of monitor outs (wish the Symphony had that.) With two TB ports built in and spec-wise a faster round trip latency than even the Symphony with TB it's really a nice box.
But what I really wanted was to hear the two units head to head. First up was the Steely Dan track Babylon Sisters. The Symphony sounded amazing with a beautiful clarity. I'm not stating anything new--most folks rave about the sound of the Symphony. When we switched to the Ensemble playing the same track the differences were not immediately evident to me. This is not the proverbial "sounds like someone threw a blanket over the monitors" situation. The Ensemble was impressive and to fear that great music couldn't be made with it would be silly. On some level it's not really fair to compare a company's top end unit to its other products. But I will. To my ears the Symphony seemed to have a little wider stereo field and slightly more natural sounding mid range. It's dynamic range was evident too when the Babylon Sisters chorus kicks in -- there was and extra oomph of dynamics that wasn't quite there with the Ensemble.
Next up was a track off of the Robert Plant Allison Krauss record. (more akin to the type of music I work on.) The Ensemble more than held it's own, but I felt that the big smokey sounding bass drum had a little more dimension and clarity on the Symphony. Open-tuned bass drums are tricky to record and hear correctly but the Symphony was kinda eye opening to me in that regard.
Ten years ago the New Ensemble would have been a no-brainer for me with its 8 nice pres, super fast TB and Apogee quality conversion. But lately I moved into a hybrid set up and have my own pres now. In the end the right Apogee box for me is the Symphony and being able to tap into it's dynamic range when mixing is very exciting to me. I want to thank John and Shane for giving me the opportunity to compare. I would recommend the Ensemble to anyone who's looking to move up from a smaller cheaper box, especially if they have a need to be portable--it's a very impressive sounding product with a lot of options built in. But for where I'm at in my career right now the Symphony is the best choice for me.
