New Universal Audio portable interface

[Drew Mazurek]

https://vintageking.com/blog/2018/01...l-audio-arrow/

Pretty impressive little box IMO. Perfect portable overdub solution for me.

[appledude]

Nice to see it being thunderbolt 3. Hope to see all Apollo’s update to TB3.

[EGS]

Wow. Looks great. Are there ANY other Thunderbolt 3 (not 1 or 2) audio interfaces?

[appledude]

I have not seen any TB 3 interfaces. Some TB 1 and TB 2s. The round trip latency for TB 2 is generally less than 4 ms. I don’t know if TB 3 will be any better but the speed is twice that of TB 2 than it would b nice if TB 3 would have a round trip around 2 ms.

[Drew Mazurek]

TB3 also offers more power which allows for the buss powering this unit has. Not possible with TB2 apparently.

[Drew Mazurek]

https://www.uaudio.com/audio-interfaces/arrow.html

UA's product page for those that are interested.

[VRW]

Universal Audio Arrow. Thunderbolt 3 audio interface. Apollo converters.
Bus-powered. For $499.-.
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Arrow

https://www.uaudio.com/?___store=def...ode&setsite=en

Looks like a really great quality yet affordable kinda interface for Pro Tools.
Converters, software, drivers all taken from the Apollos. And these are simply
high end quality.

At first view only the 2nd pair of Analog-Line-Outputs and the 8-Channel-ADAT-
Inputs are missing which might be no serious problem in this price range.

Further it´s Thunderbolt 3 and bus-powered via Thunderbolt. No adapters needed
with current MacBooks etc. (TB3/USB-C connection) and no external power supply
needed. Still 48V Phantompower for 2 Mics available and all kinda Unison preamps
are working perfectly as supposed to. This for $499.-. Not bad at all!

1 DSP might not be a lot of power for UAD plug ins but its definitely enough to
start out recording with the included Unison preamps and use a couple of these plug
ins even in some mixes. If one starts needing more of it later he always can expand
the system by one of the Quad/Octo-satellites which will offer tons of DSP power.

Yet it´s not the UAD plug ins which make this little box interesting but the audio quality,
the super stable drivers and software, Thunderbolt 3 (fast as hell/super low latency)
and that it is even bus-powered finally (great for mobile applications).

Well, I forget to mention that the Arrow can be used on Macs (macOS 10.12 Sierra, 10.13
High Sierra+) and PCs (Win 10/Anniversary Update 64-bit) with Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports.

Good job again, UA.

Very nice indeed imo.

[Drew Mazurek]

Thanks VRW!!

This forum isn't on my watch list and is a much better place for this thread. So I moved and merged.

[Southsidemusic]

The converters are NOT taken from the Apollo interfaces, they are "derived" from them which is again not the same as "taken from" and yes the Arrow sounds good for what it is and we will surely buy one for travel purposes but as we already just bought the Twin Quad for that maybe te Arrow will be too small. One core is about 5-7 plugins with the ones we use and thats way too little DSP power for 500 dollars and here insweden it cost about 750 USD with Mr Government taking his share

We have tried one demo unit here that asn't finished but that was just cosmetic stuff and the AD/DA is better thanthe first silver Twins but not near the MK2 quad conversions.

Will have an Arrow on loan and do a real A/B test within a few weeks or as fast as our dealer gets the finished product here.

VRW / Do you own one as your post looks like you have tried this box with statements like super Stable and great sound etc??

My opinion is it sounds Good but not like the Apollo MK2 interfaces at all. Not the same headroom or crisp vigh end or low end like the Twin MK2 or the Apollo MK2 Interfaces.

[VRW]

Originally Posted by Southsidemusic

The converters are NOT taken from the Apollo interfaces, they are "derived" from them which is again not the same as "taken from"

Thanks for putting it right.

So, they are finally derived from the Apollos...

Originally Posted by Southsidemusic

VRW / Do you own one as your post looks like you have tried this box with statements like super Stable and great sound etc?

I own an Apollo Thunderbolt Gen 1 which, I hope to be right this time, uses the same software/drivers 9.x like the new Arrow.
And this UA software/drivers have been the best and most stable ones I have ever used. No other manufacturer provided such reliable stuff
from my personal experience. Not Digidesign/Avid, not Apogee, not Focusrite etc. Never have experienced such a stable and issue free
performance with any other interface before. That's why I have become an UA fan. The plug ins are nice but there are other nice ones on the market too.

That's how I understood UA´s description at least.

But I'm sure you will set it right again if this should not be correct. Feel free.

Originally Posted by Southsidemusic

My opinion is it sounds Good but not like the Apollo MK2 interfaces at all. Not the same headroom or crisp high and low end like the Twin MK2 or the Apollo MK2 Interfaces but still really good for the price and what you get.

Well, fact is the whole MK2 series sounds incredibly well. Amazing indeed.

I set up a small but high class home recording suite for a friend last summer which included a MBP 2016 i7 Quad and an Apollo Twin Mk2
and I was blown away by the audio quality of the Twin MK2.

By the way it was you, South, who drew me into the whole UA stuff once. Remember? Good decision that I allowed you to do that then.
Have not looked back finally.

I still think the UA Arrow is very nice for the price and an alternative option to the Claretts which may sound nice too but suffer from driver
issues from time to time as well as from low preamp gain etc. I have never had any single driver/or any other issue since using the UA stuff...

All the best everybody.


Thanks again, Drew!