Apogee Rosetta 800

spurn · Post by **spurn** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 5:48 pm

I have been using a 2408 for years (starting with the original unit, and moving recently to a Mark 3) but I am thinking of upgrading to an Apogee Rosetta 800 with the firewire card. What are people's experiences with this unit...is it worth the bread?

croyal · Post by **croyal** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 7:58 pm

I don't have the FW card- I go direct I/O thorugh a PCI. But I can tell you the unit works FLAWLESSLY, and sounds fantastic. You'll be happier than using the 2408. It's worth the bread if you want

1. hardware control over ADC and DAC conversions,
2. a great sample rate clock to drive your setup,
3. digital and analog signal routing and format conversions,
4. pro-level AES connections at 96k (192k optional)
5. noticeably more open sound than with the 2408 series.
6. Very good cost vs. performance ratio compared to mytek, lavry, and prism units.

Other than that, it's not worth it.

Chris

Rush909 · Post by **Rush909** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 8:29 pm

spurn wrote:I have been using a 2408 for years (starting with the original unit, and moving recently to a Mark 3) but I am thinking of upgrading to an Apogee Rosetta 800 with the firewire card. What are people's experiences with this unit...is it worth the bread?

you don't need to shell out for the firewire card... you can use your existing 2408/PCI-424 (or 324 if still on G4)... I have mine hooked up through my 2408... and I love it... as far as DP is concerned, it thinks I'm still using my 2408... flawless...

r.

kwiz · Post by **kwiz** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:13 pm

Rush909 wrote:
spurn wrote:I have been using a 2408 for years (starting with the original unit, and moving recently to a Mark 3) but I am thinking of upgrading to an Apogee Rosetta 800 with the firewire card. What are people's experiences with this unit...is it worth the bread?
you don't need to shell out for the firewire card... you can use your existing 2408/PCI-424 (or 324 if still on G4)... I have mine hooked up through my 2408... and I love it... as far as DP is concerned, it thinks I'm still using my 2408... flawless...

r.

Ditto, I use the adat i/o to get to my 2408 mk3.
I still have 4 DA-88's that I use once in a while and 3 of them are connected to the TDIF connectors on my 2408. If you don't need the 2408, EBAY it and use the cash for the firewire card.

spurn · Post by **spurn** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 12:51 pm

you don't need to shell out for the firewire card... you can use your existing 2408/PCI-424 (or 324 if still on G4)... I have mine hooked up through my 2408... and I love it... as far as DP is concerned, it thinks I'm still using my 2408... flawless...

]

You're not losing quality by going through the 2408? How can you do that and use the Apogee for the master clock? Does this setup allow you to continue using DP's direct hardware playthrough with the Apogee?[/quote]

kwiz · Post by **kwiz** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 1:39 pm

spurn wrote:
you don't need to shell out for the firewire card... you can use your existing 2408/PCI-424 (or 324 if still on G4)... I have mine hooked up through my 2408... and I love it... as far as DP is concerned, it thinks I'm still using my 2408... flawless...
]

You're not losing quality by going through the 2408? How can you do that and use the Apogee for the master clock? Does this setup allow you to continue using DP's direct hardware playthrough with the Apogee?

[/quote]

No quality loss because you're using the lightpipe as a conduit to get to DP.
At that point the signal has already been digitized by the Apogee's A/D.
You then can monitor the digital signal from the Apogee, or the D/A signal from the Apogee. The direct hardware playthrough is still coming from a digital source. (lightpipe)

cloudy house · Post by **cloudy house** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 3:50 pm

glad i found this thread...have about 3500 bucks chewing through my pocket...need to replace my old 828...thinking about the rosetta 200 w/ the firewire card...as I understand, the apogee would "become my interface, yes? my only question is about monitoring...i'm used to those "main outs" on the 828...my other thought was to just get a traveler and a super cool mic pre...I'd love to hear some suggestions on how I should approach upgrading...thanks

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mark

kwiz · Post by **kwiz** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 7:30 pm

cloudy house wrote:glad i found this thread...have about 3500 bucks chewing through my pocket...need to replace my old 828...thinking about the rosetta 200 w/ the firewire card...as I understand, the apogee would "become my interface, yes? my only question is about monitoring...i'm used to those "main outs" on the 828...my other thought was to just get a traveler and a super cool mic pre...I'd love to hear some suggestions on how I should approach upgrading...thanks

<><
mark

If you want to eat that $3500 up check out the Uaudio LA-610.
It goes for about $1400 and is worth every penny. It's a mic pre/compressor that is based on the LA-2A. That and the Rosetta 200 w/the FW option will be about $3500 if not a couple bucks more.
Get the best that you can afford. If you don't need the compressor, check out the Uaudio M-610 mic pre. It goes for less than 1K and sounds good as well. The Uaudio mic pre's use a vacum tube design and do color the sound. I tend to lean towards the "warm" sound so these pre's work well for me. Maybe that's not your thing so if you can audition them with your favorite mic, you'll be able to make a sound (no pun intended) decision.
Lastly check out the Apogee mini me mic pre. I've never used it but a friend of mine swears by it. I think it goes for around $900.

As far as monitoring goes, you can monitor through the Rosetta's analog outs, or the digital (AES) outs.

Hope this helps.

cloudy house · Post by **cloudy house** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 10:05 am

hey, thanks for the reply...pretty much sold on the rosetta...still figuring out which pre I wanna get...read the review on the LA-610 in my SOS and it seems like a nice way to go...also looking at some others...Phoenix DRS-1, Neve's Portico, and the Vintech stuff...guess I need to decide if I want the compressor...also need to figure out how to get my headphone amp working with the rosetta

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mark

jweisbin · Post by **jweisbin** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 1:33 pm

The Rosetta 800 has 8 channels AD and DA. If someone is planning to lightpipe it through a 2408, then they might want to look at the Apogee AD-16X, which would give them 16 channels of AD and no DA for around the same price.

croyal · Post by **croyal** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 4:35 am

MiniMe/ MiniDAC would be a good combo- even though only 2 channels in and out. The MiniMe pres are supposed to be very good and the MiniDAC can route signals in and out through USB (IOW, MiniMe would go into the MiniDAC). Rosetta 200 doesn't have pres or direct connection to the Mac with out a FW or PCI card.

MiniDAC sound and opereation is absolutely flawless and it's my main DA for stereo monitoring. I use my Rosetta 800 for tracking and channel inserts to DP.

Nu-tra · Post by **Nu-tra** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 5:26 pm

The rosetta also has the soft limit feature that's pretty darn cool!

Archer · Post by **Archer** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 6:13 am

Got a question: which calibration levels do you set on the rosetta when you're passing the audio through the 2408?

Archer · Post by **Archer** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 5:52 am

kwiz · Post by **kwiz** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 5:59 pm

Archer wrote:Got a question: which calibration levels do you set on the rosetta when you're passing the audio through the 2408?

I've never had to do any re-calibration of levels since I pass audio through the 2408 light pipe only. Here's my path: Rosetta analog in - Rosetta lightpipe out - 2408 lightpipe in - 2408 lightpipe out - DM-24 lightpipe in.
I would guess calibration would be necessary if I were passing audio through the 2408 analog I/O's but that would be defeating the purpose of using the Rosetta in the first place.

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