Ensemble Reviews

Ensemble Thunderbolt Review

“Apogee has upped the ante yet again, with a definitive upgrade from more affordable units such as the Duet and Quartet. The Ensemble incorporates an ESS Sabre32 32-bit Hyperstream DAC with “Time Domain Jitter Eliminator”. What’s all that mean? It’s a new generation of audio digitising, that’s what! And while the Ensemble doesn’t quite outshine Apogee’s flagship Symphony I/O, it comes extremely close in specification. The Ensemble pulls a THD+N spec of -114dB (at 96k) and a dynamic range of 123dB for its D/A, while the Symphony I/O manages -117dB and a dynamic range of 129dB. There’s really not a lot in it. The resulting sonics are something to behold, with Apogee’s usual smooth and crisp high frequency reproduction, but with a bottom end that’s simply glorious. You’ve never heard your kicks captured and replayed like this before”