Curly is always on a quest to improve the quality of his listening experience. As he enjoys another episode of Glee, he can't help but notice any shortcomings in the rendition of Sue Sylvester's voice or indeed the singing of Finn, Rachel or Mercedes. Of course, he also listens to a wide selection of music - both classical and popular.
He was becoming aware that the previous setup didn't quite cut it and he felt that, while the Quad speakers were wonderful, the Edirol UA-25EX just wasn't "cutting the mustard".
Fortunately for Curly (if not my bank account), he received a newsletter from the excellent Dolphin Music. His beady eyes were soon scanning the site for alternatives and before too long he was casting admiring glances at the Apogee Duet.
The Apogee is a FireWire connected device that is Mac only. It has a very pleasing aluminium finish that goes well with most Macs. It uses a breakout cable to allow various inputs and outputs. The Apogee site has the full technical details should you require them.
Curly swiftly moved to purchase after reading the glowing reviews of the Duet's sound quality. Dolphin Music rushed the device to him and, within minutes, he was ready to switch on. What happened next was music to his ears. The sound was stunning, rich and detailed. This was exactly what he had been looking for. It was a transformation - particularly in the rendition of the voice, but also as if a veil had been lifted from the musical performances. Fortunately it arrived just in time for Curly to listen to Glee's "Power of Madonna" episode through the Duet.
The box contains not just the Duet, but adapters that allow a normal phono to phono audio cable to plug into the ¼ inch output sockets on the breakout cable. Very thoughtfully, Apogee now also include both a FireWire 400/400 and FireWire 400/800 cable - allowing easy connection to the very latest Macs without hassle. The unit has a headphone socket as well.
The Duet has a very simple set of controls - and the associated software offers several additional features. It does all that Curly needs (plus much more) - and does it with aplomb. There is always the niggling worry that Apple will at some stage drop FireWire support totally - but until that day arrives Curly very strongly recommends the Duet.