Apogee Rosetta 800
Eight channels of conversion in a single rack space, priced like a serious tool and built like one.
Overview
Two thousand nine hundred ninety-five dollars bought eight channels of A/D/A conversion in a single rack space. For a lot of project studios in the mid-2000s, that number was the whole story. The Rosetta 800 was Apogee's move to take the next-generation conversion quality of its flagship AD-8000 and package it for the price of a multi-channel Rosetta. That's the company's own framing, and it shows where this box sat in the lineup.
The unit is a 1U rack device, 11.75 inches deep and 15 pounds, with a brushed-aluminum face and Apogee's familiar purple accents. Owners describe the control layout as simple: only seven switches across the bottom, each menu option printed in black with its own LED indicator. It's usable straight out of the box without a manual. The front-panel AC power switch sits at the far left, and its LED lights when the unit is off. That's an odd choice, and you either find it charming or trip over it every session.
The conversion runs 24-bit, with sampling rates of 44.1, 48, 88.2, and 96 kHz standard. 176.4 and 192 kHz are available as an optional factory modification that added $1,000 to the list price. Frequency response is quoted at 10 Hz - 20 kHz (±0.2 dB) at 44.1 kHz, THD+N at −105 dB for A/D and −103 dB for D/A, and dynamic range at 114 dB A-weighted across both directions. Mix (March 2004, p.112) covered the Rosetta 800 as eight channels of conversion with dynamics processing. It noted the flexible routing that lets you get from any of the analog or digital sources to the outputs by switch combination rather than cable-swapping. The review also singled out percussive material, noting the converter worked some extra magic on drum sounds, and it flattered detail and dimension in low-level background sounds.
I/O is where the Rosetta 800 works as a routing hub rather than a one-trick converter. Eight channels of balanced analog in and out live on 25-pin D-sub connectors, alongside eight channels of AES/EBU on D-sub and eight of ADAT or S/MUX optical. A rear option-card slot accepts Apogee's I/O cards: the Pro Tools X-HD and X-DigiMix at $595 each, and the X-FireWire at $595 for Mac OS X and Windows XP systems. The X-FireWire lets the unit feed Logic Pro 7 over a single FireWire cable. Word-clock in and out on BNC jacks was a new addition to the Rosetta line, and the unit uses a dual-stage clock to reduce jitter. The lock-status display is a green cone shape for wide lock and a red LED beneath it for narrow lock. When both are lit, you get a green-and-red exclamation point on the panel. Digital and analog signal paths switch independently, so you can run simultaneous A-to-D and D-to-A processing, or shuttle signals between ADAT, AES/EBU, and analog formats without re-patching.
Apogee's house processing is built in. UV22HR word-length reduction handles dithering down to 16-bit output, available on all digital outputs at 44.1 or 48 kHz. Soft Limit analog input limiting is switchable on or off across all eight analog inputs. The Electronic Musician review flagged the low-jitter clocking and the easy-to-use metering as strengths. Each channel gets a pair of variable-intensity LEDs for analog and digital output levels, plus an A/D overload LED that helps with power-user routing setups.
The review was candid about the flaws. The price was called professional: $2,995 base, $3,995 for the 192 kHz version, and another grand on top if you wanted the factory high-rate modification. The unit does not support 2-channel optical S/PDIF, even though the manual claims it will interface with a DAT machine through the Toslink bay. That's a documented discrepancy between the documentation and the hardware, so check it before you plan a signal chain around it. AES signals at 88.2 kHz and above can run single-wire or double-wire. Mix (March 2004, p.112) covered the unit as eight channels of conversion with dynamics processing, noting the flexible routing that lets you get from any of the analog or digital sources to the outputs by switch combination rather than cable-swapping.
Collectors and working engineers tend to treat the Rosetta 800 as a tool rather than a fetish object. The FireWire option makes it a period-correct front end for a mid-2000s Logic rig. The D-sub connectivity means you'll want to budget for the proper breakout cables, and Apogee made multiconnector D-sub-to-AES/EBU and D-sub-to-XLR analog cables specifically for this unit. Fifteen pounds of converter in one rack space, with clocking good enough to serve as the master for a small studio, is a lot of capability for the money on the used market.
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