Apogee mini me

[john joe daly]

Any one out there used the Apogee mini-me?
I'm looking for feedback on this unit.
It seems a good compromise (budget wise!) between a good converter and a good pre-amp.
Any feedback on sound quality would be great.
I can't get my hands on one to test before I buy.
I know I'm asking a much too open question here but...
Suggestions for alternatives in the same $1500 price range would also be interesting.
Cheers,
Johnjoed

[Mount Royal]

I'm wondering the same, as I'm amidst putting a two channel mobile rig together. My plan thus far is use the Grace V3 preamp instead the Mini Me, but I'm unsure. My understanding is that the Grace preamps are of very high quality, but one might reason the the Apogee converter might have some edge over the Grace unit's A/D. The Apogee also offers USB to permit the Mini Me to act as a sole I/O interface, which the Grace does not permit in its current form. The Grace and Apogee units are similary priced.

FWIW, Marantx is shipping a new portable recorder, the PMD-671, in a few weeks or sooner. This recorder with accept 24 bit input via S/PDIF, and the medium is Compact Flash. I'm thinking that this recorder and the Apogee or Grace front end should really be quite good for a battery-operable system. Again just as an aside, the Sound Designs LSD-2 stereo mic, looks promising for my needs as well for this rig, as does the EcoCharge battery system.

Best,

John-


Grace V3 Preamp

EcoCharge Battery

Marantz PMD-671

Sound Designs LSD-2 Mic

[WildHoney]

I had one for a year or two. Really liked it as an all-in-one compromise. I used it both SPDIF into an mbox and USB with Digital Performer. The pres sounded nice and open -- not a "vintage" vibe at all, but clean and pleasing. The built-in compressor is decent as a protection against overs (which is kind of necessary b/c the metering is not great, probably due mostly to the limited space on the front of the unit), but not great as a replacement for a full-featured comp. The squashed setting was surprisingly usable if you wanted a heavy compression sound going in. I had wished that they would have found a way to have both xlr and trs ins rather than the combo jacks b/c plugging and unplugging got to be a hassle sometimes, but I guess considering the overall size of the unit, compromises need to be made. I recently sold mine for around $1100 and I think if you can find one at that price it's a pretty great bargain for two channels of nice pre and two channels of nice A/D.

[john joe daly]

Cheers for the feedback guys.
It always helps to get the low down from previous users.
I'll also have a look into the Grace unit Mount Royal.

John Joe