APOGEE MINI-DAC
Apr 1, 2005 12:00 PM, BY ROBERT HANSON
KEEP IT CLEAN > The Apogee
Mini-DAC USB is capable of accepting almost any digital signal and then converting it to an analog stereo output with the highest-quality converters available in a portable unit.
The music-industry market has never been more flush with computer audio interfaces than it is right now. And while most companies are caught up in the race to add more preamps, headphone connections, MIDI or what have you to their boxes, few are talking about pristine audio quality. Sure, most of the products from the big players are serviceable pieces that deliver the goods with a minimum of fuss. But if you want portability and boutique specs all in the same place, look no further than Apogee.
Long known in professional circles, Apogee has been turning out the “best of the best” in digital audio converters and interfaces for quite some time now. My first real encounter with the company's products made a lasting impression: I was visiting a producer friend at a very high-end studio in San Francisco, and he simply pointed to a floor-to-ceiling rack of Apogee Rosetta 800s and said without hesitation, “These are the shit.” On the outside, I remained calm, but on the inside, I did my best Dane Cook impression and exclaimed, “I need that!” Luckily for mere mortals, Apogee has been steadily expanding its Mini series of portable (and more affordable) A/D and D/A converters.
One of the newer additions to the series is the Mini-DAC with optional USB, a 2-channel, multiformat digital-to-analog converter. The unit can work as a stand-alone D/A converter, handling all manner of digital audio (as high as 192 kHz) and digital connections (USB, optical and coaxial S/PDIF, AES and ADAT Toslink). Basically, regardless of what digital audio you throw at it, the DAC simply returns a pristine analog stereo signal. The real power of the unit comes when it's paired with the company's Mini-Me — a combination dual mic pre/DI and A/D converter — and used as a complete mobile- or desktop-recording solution. The DAC is capable of interfacing with most USB-equipped Macs and PCs, managing the output of the computer and relaying the audio from the Mini-Me. I tested the Mini-DAC in this configuration with an Apple Mac G5/dual 2.5GHz and a G4/1GHz PowerBook.
Before going any further, though, get a bit familiar with the rest of the unit. From left to right, the front panel includes a bank of LEDs that indicate the unit's current sample rate (44.1, 88.2, 48, 96, 176.4 and 192 kHz), an Input Select knob (USB, S/PDIF, optical, AES, ADAT), output-level indicators, a three-position power switch (off, headphones only or all), a Level knob and a ¼-inch headphone output. The back panel sports a 14V power input, a coaxial S/PDIF input, an ADAT/stereo optical input, a 9-pin AES input, a USB port, an ⅛-inch stereo output and a stereo pair of balanced XLR outputs.
Getting the unit up and running is about as stupid-easy as it gets. The Mini-DAC doesn't require a separate driver; just plug in the unit's power supply, connect it to a factory-installed USB port on your computer (USB hubs are not supported), select USB as the input source for the DAC, and choose the DAC as the computer's default audio output. You may need to also do this inside of your DAW or other software, but that's about it. In my experience, I needed to restart the G5 a time or two to get everything to lock up. (If the unit can't lock up with the computer, the sample-rate LEDs on the left side will continue to cycle.) And when I needed to switch among several applications (Propellerhead Reason to Apple Logic to Native Instruments Absynth and back again) or force-quit something, the DAC would sometimes lose sync with the computer, requiring a restart. But, overall, the unit was essentially trouble-free, and with the Mini-Me interfaced via S/PDIF, I used the combination to track and mix an entire album project. With the laptop in mobile situations and with the tower in my project studio, the DAC delivered noticeably clearer and crisper audio. I A/B'd the DAC against a number of other FireWire and USB interfaces (I have many), and the DAC sounded most like what I hear in professional studios.
Overall, the Apogee Mini-DAC USB (and the entire Mini series) wasn't designed to win the input-output war. What the DAC does deliver is probably some of the best-sounding digital-to-analog stereo conversion that the project studio and laptop crowd can afford. If you really want to hear what's happening in your mixes — aside from upgrading your monitors — you'll want to invest in a quality D/A converter, and the Mini-DAC USB is a great way to go.
APOGEE
MINI-DAC > $1,195 (WITH USB); $995 (WITHOUT USB)
Pros: Pristine audio-playback unit. Sturdy construction. Easy operation.
Cons: Sometimes loses connection with host computer.
Contact: www.apogeedigital.com
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