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  #1  
Old 01-29-2013, 06:50 PM
moonmusic moonmusic is offline
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Default Apogee Ensemble VS my Mbox 3 Pro

Would the Ensemble be sonically better than my current M-box Pro?....I think the Mbox sounds surprisingly great but would the Ensemble be more transparent or are they pretty equal on all fronts?.....Thanks.....moon
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  #2  
Old 01-29-2013, 06:53 PM
CME CME is offline
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Default Apogee Ensemble VS my Mbox 3 Pro

What's your room like? Until its well treated you probably won't tell a lot of difference. Even then it might be negligible. The new mboxes are pretty solid from what I've heard.
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  #3  
Old 01-29-2013, 07:19 PM
moonmusic moonmusic is offline
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Default Re: Apogee Ensemble VS my Mbox 3 Pro

I'm actually going to be in alot of rooms and none of them are really treated....I was just wondering how close the new stuff is....The last apogee module I really owned and used was the rosetta and it blew the doors off my original Mbox at the time....I also know I was really pleasantly surprised with my new Mbox Pro sound but the Ensemble is alot newer too so I was wondering if there was a huge difference like there was the last time I compared....Whichever I use, it's going to be a do all workhorse from tracking drums, keyboards, vocals, guitars.....Everything.....I won't have money for any analog pres....If anything I'd get more plugins......Thanks....moon
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Old 01-29-2013, 07:42 PM
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groundcontrol groundcontrol is offline
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Default Apogee Ensemble VS my Mbox 3 Pro

I haven't done a direct comparison but I've used both and I don't think there's a world of difference. You could say they're probably equivalent and any practical difference is gonna come more from one unit having some features/io's you really need.
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  #5  
Old 01-29-2013, 07:59 PM
moonmusic moonmusic is offline
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Default Re: Apogee Ensemble VS my Mbox 3 Pro

Thanks for your input....It's good to hear from someone that has actual use of both....If you didn't hear an obvious difference then I guess that's a great testiment to how far the Mbox series has come.....The MB Pro has all the io I need PLUS it has midi....I just want to make sure I'm not missing out on a box that would be much more transparent and spacious than the one I already have....Thanks again....moon
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Old 01-29-2013, 08:33 PM
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groundcontrol groundcontrol is offline
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Default Apogee Ensemble VS my Mbox 3 Pro

Quite frankly I was a bit surprised when I first heard the new MBoxes. Didn't thought it would be as good. It's worth noting the new MBs, the Duet and I think the Ensemble use the same converter chip and there are possibly some similarities in their design.
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Old 01-29-2013, 08:48 PM
nst7 nst7 is offline
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Default Re: Apogee Ensemble VS my Mbox 3 Pro

Moon,

You're not missing out at all.

First of all, the Ensemble is years older than the new Mboxes, and has now officially been discontinued by Apogee. So it's not something you want to have moving forward, as there won't be much more support or compatibility with future versions of Protools, etc.

Secondly, I have personally compared the regular Mbox 3 (non-Pro) with the Apogee Duet 2.

Why do I mention this? Because it's generally accepted that the Duet 2 sounds better than the Duet 1 or Ensemble (the Ensemble being basically a multichannel version of the Duet 1).

And in my opinion, having directly compared them, the regular Mbox 3 sounds better than the Duet 2.

And the Mbox 3 Pro most likely sounds better than the regular Mbox 3, since the Pro has JetPLL clocking technology and more robust power supply.

So, putting it all together, your Mbox Pro sounds better than the regular Mbox, which sounds better than the Duet 2, which sounds better than the Ensemble. On top of that, the Ensemble is discontinued and is a dead end.

So you should feel very good about what you have!

And I'm not being biased towards any of these because I have HD Native and HD Omni, which sounds better than all of them.
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  #8  
Old 01-30-2013, 06:32 PM
moonmusic moonmusic is offline
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Default Re: Apogee Ensemble VS my Mbox 3 Pro

Thanks Nst7....The ONLY advantage I could think of on the Ensemble at this point is I could hook it up to my G5 HD2 Accel system....I'm not sure the Mbox drivers go back to 10.5.8 like the Ensemble does.....I need to check into that....I could use either the Ensemble or Mbox on my Macbook Pro 10.6.8 though....Since there is not a clear audio advantage with the Ensemble, I'll probably just use the MBox Pro on the MacBook Pro and drag the files over to the HD for mixdown....Thanks again everyone....moon
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Old 01-30-2013, 08:07 PM
nst7 nst7 is offline
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Default Re: Apogee Ensemble VS my Mbox 3 Pro

I'm not sure how you'd use the Ensemble with your software on the HD/G5 system. If it's a G5, then you must have HD8 or earlier, which does not work natively with non-HD interfaces like PT9 and 10 do.

I'm not sure exactly what you're trying to do, but keep in mind that the Mbox Pro has a mode that lets it work as a standalone A/D and D/A converter. I don't know if that helps or gives you more flexibility with what you're trying to do.
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  #10  
Old 01-31-2013, 01:29 PM
moonmusic moonmusic is offline
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Default Re: Apogee Ensemble VS my Mbox 3 Pro

Didn't know Ensemble wouldn't work in PT8HD so that's good to know.....I mainly need to use 2 XLR phantom inputs (the pro has 4) for overhead drums....And 1 for vocals, etc......The Macbook is easy because 1 firewire connection does it....The HD system, not so easy....I thought about doing as you suggest, just coming out of the outs of the Mbox to the inputs of the 96i so I could use the XLR connections....I'll probably end up using the Macbook Pro for most of my tracking anyway because that's where the newer plugins are and export that as audio...Then throw those tracks into the HD system for mixdown......No matter what way I decide to do it, the Ensemble isn't going to be a better sonic solution and that's really what I needed to know....Thanks again....moon

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Originally Posted by nst7 View Post
I'm not sure how you'd use the Ensemble with your software on the HD/G5 system. If it's a G5, then you must have HD8 or earlier, which does not work natively with non-HD interfaces like PT9 and 10 do.

I'm not sure exactly what you're trying to do, but keep in mind that the Mbox Pro has a mode that lets it work as a standalone A/D and D/A converter. I don't know if that helps or gives you more flexibility with what you're trying to do.
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