Apogee Quartet or Focusrite Clarett 4pre usb

[Rycebag]

Hey all,

I have a chance to get either the clarett 4 pre usb or apogee quartet for pretty decent prices used. I want to use the interface for basic tracking at my home and also at my studio occasionally micing up drum kits as well. Another thing i'm interested in is expansion with another mic/pre unit in the future. Anyone here have any experience with either unit? The quartet is form 2012 and the owner of the clarett told me he purchased it a few months ago but doesn't need it.

 

[silky smoove]

Apogee is great, until you start trying to expand beyond their packaged systems. You can read about my nearly two year long battle with them somewhere in the later pages of my studio build thread in this forum. If you never want to expand, the Quartet is really nice. If you eventually want to expand, go with the Claret, which is also very nice.

 

[Anatosuchus]

Focusrite are definitely a winner as long as you are using a mainstream OS on your computer.

 

[Rycebag]

are all the mic/pre inputs on the apogee instrument level? The Focusrite seems to have only two out of the 4 mic/pre inputs.

 

[Aloe]

I have a Clarett Thunderbolt and it's great (in fact, I have two of them).

expansion via ADAT is possible, perfect companion is Clarett Octopre. however, you'll get eight inputs only on 44.1/48, 4 on 96 and only two on 192.

expanding with an external preamp is possible without ADAT as well, Clarett 4Pre has four line-level inputs (in addition to 4 preamps, those jacks at the back), nicely suitable for external preamps.