I do not really understand why Apogee Electronics is not making devices like these anymore. They have discontinued this product in 2003 and I am wondering why they would do such a thing. Is it because it was packed with features in a small portable device? Or is it that people have no need for a high end portable converter? Or is it that company has bigger interests than making feature-packed products?
It was not cheap, but you could find these hovering on ebay for about 700$
I have been using mini me as a portable firewire interface and carried it around Europe and recorded classical recitals with it. Cool thing about it that it records in 96khz 24bit
Also, ultra clean sounding preamps have Soft limiter, and Soft Limiter Compression (SLC) switch with 3 curves (how neat)
Possible to change compressor release from inside the box by adjusting screw (wtf?) but still bizzare cool.
Mini-Me outperformed many interfaces in this range. Actually I couldn't find anything in this "Higher End" range
If your SPIDIF/AES of your sound card is gathering dust and doing nothing, you could put it to work and connect mini me and have extra two ultra clean nice sounding preamplifiers with Direct Boxes.
There is a significant amount of latency when tracking. This box is not great for session work. There is no analog output except 1/8" mini headphone jack.
Mini-Me slaughters Apogees Duet2 by far in features and its functionality. And now, it only costs about the same as his predecessor. It seems obvious that Apogee Electronics is now Pro-sumer oriented and they are targeting guitar heroes and "garage band" musicians in order to make more profit.
Mini-Me is the "high-end" way to go for making stereo recordings.
Before I owned this unit, I was a bum....
I picked it up used on ebay, put it in line as my go to A/d from my console (AMEK BIG) output into the dig in of my tascam 1000 cd burner..
Now i'm not a bum anymore..
The impact this device made changed my mix perspective.
Trust no one, use your ears (go figure) if it sounds better, it is better!
that was 10 years ago and many cases of red.....
When the mixes opened up, sounded clearer, and the stereo feild widened by buying 1 little box,, i had to know more..
SOOOO,, a few thousand later I swung in a APOGEE rosetta 800 (legacy also, no lnger manufactured, But still supported...) into my PT rig...all i can say is: I LOVE APOGEE, U GUYS RULE!
Really,,, i'm not a bum anymore and neither are my final mixes.....