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| Rosetta 800 |
There’s a certain vocabulary people have developed to describe the characteristics of AD/DA converters. When they’re Good, the sound is warm, rich, full, natural and detailed. But when they’re Bad, the sound is brittle, thin, harsh, dull and muddy. By contrasting those two groups of words, you get an idea of why better converters are the Holy Grail in the digital audio world.
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| Big Ben |
Apogee’s Rosetta 800 is in the Good category. In fact, when paired with Apogee’s new Big Ben master clock, it’s Remarkable. Perfectly configured for project studios needing conversion of eight channels in and out, the Rosetta 800 would be at home in any studio – big or small – because of its professional I/O options and highly detailed audio conversion.[an error occurred while processing this directive] Also noteworthy is Rosetta 800’s price-per-channel ratio. It provides eight channels of A/D and D/A at a list price of $2,995. That’s the same list price as Apogee’s older PSX100, a two-channel A/D and D/A converter released in 1999. A previous eight-channel Apogee converter, the AD8000, came out in 1998 with a list price of $5,995! And that offered only analog-to-digital conversion. It looks as if Moore’s Law applies to the audio converter market.
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| X-HD card |
The Rosetta 800 also includes some attractive features, such as Apogee’s SoftLimit, a built-in limiter; and the UV22HR process, for dithering down a 24-bit signal to 16-bit CD output. The unit we reviewed was the Rosetta 800 96k, offering up to 96kHz sampling. But there are actually two versions of the Rosetta 800, a 96k model and the 192k model. If you buy the 96k model, a factory upgrade to 192kHz can be done later. This spring, the X-FireWire card will be released, offering direct connectivity between the Rosetta 800 and OS X or Windows XP computers. Also, Apogee's X-Digi-Mix and X-HD expansion cards will connect Rosetta 800 -- and the new Rosetta 200 -- directly to Pro Tools Mix and HD systems. The Mix card is available now, while the HD card will be available in late spring. The eight analog input channels on the Rosetta 800 are connected via an optional XLR to DB-25 snake, the AD8-IFC. Once in digital form, the signals can be routed out through AES/EBU or ADAT optical jacks to a digital recorder, patchbay or mixer. Another XLR to DB-25 snake (DA8-IFC) handles the eight analog outputs for monitor playback.
Big Ben ($1,495.00 list) is 192kHz capable out of the box, and in addition to being an extremely solid clock that improves the sound of the converters, it includes AES/EBU, ADAT and S/PDIF digital audio I/O jacks. These are very handy if you need to connect a device with AES outs to one with S/PDIF ins – just route the AES device to the Big Ben’s AES in and connect the receiving device from Big Ben’s S/PDIF out. The FireWire option card will also fit in Big Ben, for clocking and format conversion with other devices.
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| Word clock terminals on Big Ben |
Big Ben has six Word Clock Outs and Word Clock/Video In. It can operate equally well as a master or slave device, continuing to stabilize the clock signal even while slaving. This is due to something Apogee calls Adaptive Loop Filtering, which optimizes clock performance and attenuates jitter, preventing even a poor clock from degrading Big Ben’s performance. Physically, both Big Ben and the Rosetta 800 are sleek one rackspace units, with red and green LEDs showing the selected inputs, outputs, sampling rate, bit rate and other parameters. It's easy to figure out most functions just by looking at the front panel.
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| Big Ben's sample rate LED |
Big Ben has the currently selected sample rate prominently featured in big easy-to-read numbers in the middle, with a green arrow and a solid blue dot and the words "narrow lock" displayed when it achieves the most precise lock possible. Other functions of this LED indicate when Big Ben is unlocked (blinking green arrow), locked with questionable quality clock (green arrow and "wide lock"), and Surelock mode (blinking green arrow with blue LED). Surelock mode is automatically engaged when Big Ben becomes unlocked from the selected clock source, and makes sure Big Ben continues to transmit a stable clock anyway. Another nice feature of Big Ben is that LEDs for each Word clock out indicate whenever an output connection is improperly terminated on the other end, which helps in birdogging clock problems. The LEDs on the Rosetta 800 indicate sample rate from 44.1k to 192k (with 192k model), external clock source (AES, ADAT, WC, S/MUX, DW, option with option card input), source to digital outs, SoftLimit engaged, resolution, signal, and source to analog outs. It's nice to have an LED for practically every function, but they are small and you quickly learn to memorize the LED patterns if you don't want to be leaning over and squinting.
