Apogee Ensemble or Mbox 3 Pro

[philip888]

This may be a dumb question to some but. What are you opinions on which one would be better to get for a project studio?

[Darryl Ramm]

Given the choice between the discontinued Ensemble or the MBox Pro I would pick the UAD Apollo (the likely reason the Apogee Ensemble was discontinued). Only the MBox Pro included a Pro Tools license however.

But that is just me, without knowing *any* of your needs, any comments you get back from folks run the risk of being pretty irrelevant.

Darryl

[JoelG]

In your signature you have a MacBook and a Win7 desktop. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Apogee only makes Mac drivers for their newer products. That would mean you could only use it with one of your computers. That would be a deal breaker for me.

Joel

[nst7]

I agree with Darryl, that if you need the type of I/O that the Ensemble has, go for the Apollo. But as mentioned, you'll also need to buy Protools software.

Unless you already have a version you can upgrade from.

If you don't need that much I/O, the Mbox Pro is a great solution, and comes with Protools 11.

[Kasper]

Consider the Symphony, if it will suit your current I/O needs, you can start with the "cheap" card and chassis.

2x6 analog, ADAT, AES and USB.

This can grow with your needs by adding cards.
It will also work as an HD interface, if you go HD down the road (if AVID doesn't kill it)

It will sound as good or better than anything else you can buy, regardless of $$, and it's a steal at $2K.
(subjectively, of course)

I believe it is Mac only though.


kasper

[YYR123]

Originally Posted by Kasper

Consider the Symphony, if it will suit your current I/O needs, you can start with the "cheap" card and chassis.

2x6 analog, ADAT, AES and USB.

It will sound as good or better than anything else you can buy, regardless of $$, and it's a steal at $2K.
kasper

I agree with Kasper (gasp !) sonically you can count on the Symphony (just have to consider the fact you will need Preamps - which can be kind of pricy for a project)

But didn't they have problems with the drivers recently (or did they just recently fix it ? ) I don't remember

The Apollo sounds great but I don't like the idea of buying a whole new set of plugs to be able to run on the UAD cards

I would not count on Mbox3 pro considering the problems that have been posted here in the APAC