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Ive been wanting to upgrade my studio with API, great River and UA pre's and a whole bunch of "high end" compressors and EQ's. Im a still a bit confused with the A/D thing here. I dont want to use the the Aardvark A/D convertes (they are not that bad but I want more). I was thinking of geetting the Apogee Rosetta 800, but how do I send the signal into my PC if I dont have the Aardvark Q10 ? I read something on the Apogee website about a firewire card that install into the Rosetta. Is this all I need ? just a fire wire adapter in the Rosetta 800 and another firewire port on my PC ? Will I need an audio card to be able to playback the music ? Please help and thanks in advanced!

JP

-PS-Sorry kurt for beating this dead horse theme again :(

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Cucco Mon, 10/04/2004 - 09:40

You are correct. The apogee is simply a converter. You will need to keep a sound card of some sorts. However, I would urge you to consider other options. For example, why are you wanting to "upgrade" your converters from the Aardvark to the Apogee. Many people do not consider this to be an upgrade as the converters in the Aardvark are excellent and the Apogees are disliked by so many. Also, I would suggest you listen critically to recordings made with both products - I think you will be surprised by the results.

If you are lacking some things from the Aardvark, perhaps try using an external clock (such as the AardSync) to stabilize the internal clock in the outboard converters. Then you could afford to get a couple extra Q10s for more inputs and outputs.

Just a thought.

J...

Cucco Mon, 10/04/2004 - 11:34

Cool! 8)

Have you tried or heard of Genex converters. They are well within the price point of Apogees, but they blow the apogees out of the water. You can even get them with a DSD option that makes them work quite well in an SACD mastering environment.

Check with Joe at:
Strassberg Associates
630 9th Avenue
Suite 1110
New York, New York 10036

Telephone : +1 (212) 315-9551
Fax : +1 (212) 315-9552
Email : steve@strassberg.com
Website : http://

He can give you the dirt on these beauties.

J... :)

KurtFoster Mon, 10/04/2004 - 11:48

The Rosetta 800 offers 8 channels of A to D and D to A conversion .. as well as 8 channels of ADAT or AES in and outs. It is 96K capible and can do 192 with an optional card.

You do not need a soundcard to use it only a firewire connection and the optional firewire card .. It provides both analog inputs and outputs for all 8 channels.

I personally like the sound of Apogees converters .. I don't know what all the talkin' smack about them is about. I find them to be a large improvement over run of the mill converters and I love the soft limit and UV 22 features.

anonymous Mon, 01/17/2005 - 22:35

Hi every one

I've got a reply from sweet waters sale manager (Ted Hunter) regarding this subject..

Abdullah-

The Rosetta 800 is only a converter, but there will be an optional
Firewire card you can add to it so you can use it as a standalone interface
for our computer as well:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/XFirewire/

You can email Ted Hunter this is his email addresse..

But i want to konw if the converters of rosseta 800 sounds like or better than Digidesign's HD192 I/O card's..

Best regars

Abdullah AL balushi - Oman

ted_hunter@sweetwater.com

KurtFoster Mon, 01/17/2005 - 23:05

I usually research a subject before I post an answer here if it is something I am not sure of ... In this case I checked at the Apogee web site at this link: [[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.apogeedi…"] Rosetta 800[/]="http://www.apogeedi…"] Rosetta 800[/]

Read the paragraph under the heading; Go Native with the X-FireWire expansion card for all the details, ...

The short story, the Rosetta 800 with the X FireWire card can do 8 channels in and out. You get eight channels of AD/DA conversion at sample rates of up to 192k, Apogee´s “SoftLimit”, “UV22HR”, and “Intelliclock”..

anonymous Fri, 01/21/2005 - 07:06

Many people do not consider this to be an upgrade as the converters in the Aardvark are excellent and the Apogees are disliked by so many.

Who are these people? I've never talked to anyone who prefers the Aardvark converters to the Apogees. The people who don't like the Apogee converters are typically people who prefer others in the same price range or higher, like those from Benchmark, Lavry, and Genex (as you mentioned) among others. Aardvark's converters are good in comparison to many other converters that are built into interfaces, but the Apogees are a significant upgrade.

The Rosetta 800 offers 8 channels of Ato Dand Dto Aconversion .. as well as 8 channels of ADAT or AES in and outs. It is 96K capible and can do 192 with an optional card.

Actually, it's not an optional card...the 192 kHz-capable model is a different version. You can send a 96 kHz model to Apogee to upgrade I believe, but it's not as simple as putting in a card like you can for Firewire or Pro Tools compatibility.

Interestingly enough, Apogee claims that their converters sound just as good at 44.1 kHz as they do at 192 kHz...not on their website, but I've seen them say it on other forums and talked to them about it at tradeshows...

-Duardo