Guitar Center /Apogee Ens / RME 800 help??

Fac06 · Post by **Fac06** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 4:21 pm

So a friend of mine and I forced ourselves to go to the Guitar Center here as I needed to actually hear the Apogee Ensemble and the RME..after looking at crap for awhile and actually getting ignored by sales KIDS (maybe the Cramps t-shirt I wore??) Finally had a guy show me the Apogee hooked up to a MacBPro...listening to just the headphone outs with a few different pairs of cans I hear -1 it sounds ok..2 listening to just the headphones out without any signal in it is noisy as hell...I couldnt believe the noise floor.... Couldnt even listen to the RME 800 as it was just in a rack for show evidently...a sales guy at GC is trying to set it up for me with an Intel Mac to just put cds that I am very familiar with thru it and he is actually having a hard time with it...he said he downloaded the newest drivers and the latest firmware but that the audio starts out crackly and then just goes away..gets some kind of error messeges...yeah.. anyone have any ideas?

Fact06

Smitty · Post by **Smitty** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 4:56 pm

you mean ideas on troubleshooting the computer at your local Guitar Center, or ideas on which of these interfaces is more desireable?

there were some opinions on the latter subject expressed over here recently.

Fac06 · Post by **Fac06** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 5:06 pm

Smitty wrote:you mean ideas on troubleshooting the computer at your local Guitar Center, or ideas on which of these interfaces is more desireable?

there were some opinions on the latter subject expressed over here recently.

Yeah actually I am wondering if others have had issues with using the RME800 and Intel Macs...I was really turned-off by the noise in the Apogee
which is kind of a bummer as I have been whittling down the converter selection for awhile and have gotten down to the Apogee Ensemble, The RME800 and a Metric Halo unit which Guitar Center here is supposed to carry but thay have to *SPECIAL ORDER* the damn things...I have also emailed Metric Halo asking about some info and maybe some other places or people that I could check into to listen to the stuff but its been a few weeks and not even an automated email answer....nice eh???

Fact06

Silverlode · Post by **Silverlode** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 2:00 pm

Both of those units are going to have pristine sound. If there was a high noise floor, the unit may have been bad.

I've never had an issue with my FF800, drivers or otherwise (MacBook).

Score another for GC....

Fac06 · Post by **Fac06** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 2:38 pm

Silverlode wrote:Both of those units are going to have pristine sound. If there was a high noise floor, the unit may have been bad.

I've never had an issue with my FF800, drivers or otherwise (MacBook).

Score another for GC....

Check this...the guy was hooking it up to a newer iMac and he said that Apple changed the drivers and that they are goofy...he said the only way it would work is with FW800 and a Glyph drive inbetween the iMac and The RME 800.....why he hooked it to an iMac who knows..I wanted it to be hooked to a MBPro....
Fact06

Smitty · Post by **Smitty** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 2:44 pm

my mac's pre-intel, so i can't say for sure, but i do know that RME is historically on top of their shit when it comes to timely and reliable driver-support across all platforms.

Fac06 · Post by **Fac06** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 3:06 pm

Smitty wrote:my mac's pre-intel, so i can't say for sure, but i do know that RME is historically on top of their shit when it comes to timely and reliable driver-support across all platforms.

Thats what I understand...the guy said that this is a Apple iMac driver (?) issue.....?????? I said "why the fuck would Apple change the drivers for JUST the iMac" he said "I dunno-its weird" Totally..

I think I need to call RME

Fact06

Smitty · Post by **Smitty** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 3:26 pm

i'm running an iMac (pre-intel) with a FF800, and it worked hunky-dory out of the box.

chris harris · Post by **chris harris** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 4:20 pm

Fact06 wrote: Check this...the guy was hooking it up to a newer iMac and he said that Apple changed the drivers and that they are goofy...he said the only way it would work is with FW800 and a Glyph drive inbetween the iMac and The RME 800.....why he hooked it to an iMac who knows..I wanted it to be hooked to a MBPro....
Fact06

I bet he'd be more than happy to sell you one of those Glyph drives.

Jeff White · Post by **Jeff White** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 6:37 pm

I'm not dissing the RME stuff, as I have zero experience with it. However, I have heard things online (take this with a grain of salt) concerning RME and Mac Intel drivers. I have also heard things regarding the guy who runs RME having no interest in the Mac side of the computer universe. Now, I don't know if that is bullshit, but there were a bunch of folks over at Unicornation.com (MOTU Digital Performer Messageboard) who had a lot of problems with RME's Mac Intel drivers.

I was going to pull the trigger on a FF800 last spring and compare it to the BLA modded 828mk2 that I have and keep the better of the two. However, I decided that I am satisfied with what I have for now. I am, however, very interested in the Metric Halo 2882 +DSP. They are Mac-only and bullet-proof. I never hear anything but positive support for their products. If you are looking at Apogee and RME, I think that you should check out Metric Halo as well.

Jeff

0-it-hz · Post by **0-it-hz** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 8:12 pm

As a former GC employee I can assure you: Nothing that happens at guitar center reflects reality. EVER. and all the shit on the floor is broken, mostly always.

You're better off just getting a loaner from a legit pro-audio dealer even if it takes more time/driving.

On another note, I like the sound of the ff800 very much.

Fac06 · Post by **Fac06** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 1:44 am

ipressrecord wrote:I'm not dissing the RME stuff, as I have zero experience with it. However, I have heard things online (take this with a grain of salt) concerning RME and Mac Intel drivers. I have also heard things regarding the guy who runs RME having no interest in the Mac side of the computer universe. Now, I don't know if that is bullshit, but there were a bunch of folks over at Unicornation.com (MOTU Digital Performer Messageboard) who had a lot of problems with RME's Mac Intel drivers.

I was going to pull the trigger on a FF800 last spring and compare it to the BLA modded 828mk2 that I have and keep the better of the two. However, I decided that I am satisfied with what I have for now. I am, however, very interested in the Metric Halo 2882 +DSP. They are Mac-only and bullet-proof. I never hear anything but positive support for their products. If you are looking at Apogee and RME, I think that you should check out Metric Halo as well.

That is interesting as I have heard the opposite about the RME stuff and their customer service...why someone at that level would want to fluff off the Mac side of things is just stupid as Mac kicks ass over PC for audio apps... I am going totally Mac as I have been screwing with PCs-Windows since about 1992-93 and am just sick of it.

ehh..Mac only Metric Halo?? I didnt see that.....that seems really weird If you would have read my orginal post you would see that I WAS very interested in that very MH unit
but seeing that they wont return my emails and are charging people FULL RETAIL for Spectrafoo I say f*ck em....yeah Ill use Smaart or my old hardware noise-spectrum gear before i shell out 1k for software that egotistical f*ckers try to sell for full retail...shit even Logic 8 is only 500 bucks now.... sorry but I dont have time for Metric Halo if they wont even send me at LEAST an automated reply......

Fac06 · Post by **Fac06** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 1:49 am

0-it-hz wrote:As a former GC employee I can assure you: Nothing that happens at guitar center reflects reality. EVER. and all the shit on the floor is broken, mostly always.

You're better off just getting a loaner from a legit pro-audio dealer even if it takes more time/driving.

On another note, I like the sound of the ff800 very much.

Thats funny...and the honesty is refreshing...geez I hate GC.... I also hate Sweetwater but dont have a shitload of money to spend...

Fact06

Jeff White · Post by **Jeff White** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 8:20 am

Regarding RME, like I said, it may be total bullshit, but more than one person was bitching about and still continue to have issues with the RME firewire stuff on Macs. I know I know... Messageboards.

Everyone who I've ever come across who uses Metric Halo interfaces swears by them for rock-solid performance and great sound.

I'll stick with my Black Lion modded 828mk2 for now. Sounds great.

Jeff

Fac06 · Post by **Fac06** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 11:35 am

ipressrecord wrote:Regarding RME, like I said, it may be total bullshit, but more than one person was bitching about and still continue to have issues with the RME firewire stuff on Macs. I know I know... Messageboards.

Everyone who I've ever come across who uses Metric Halo interfaces swears by them for rock-solid performance and great sound.

I'll stick with my Black Lion modded 828mk2 for now. Sounds great.

Jeff

I appreciate the input...but the stuff Ive heard from pretty much trusty sources is good....I dunno...I would STILL like to hear the Metric Halo but they do kinda piss me off.... The BL mods sound like a good thing but what was the turn around time for the mods, what did they ACTUALLY do (I mean what actual components did they replace and with what did they replace them with-how was the solder work?) and what was the cost?? Was your unit under warranty at the time and did it void it (da-doi) or was your unit used? Was it really tantamount to removing a blanket from the pre-amps in the MOTU unit???

Fact06

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Guitar Center /Apogee Ens / RME 800 help??

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