Hi!

I was thinking about buying another audio interface and use it together with my Universal Audio Apollo connecting them through adat. Now the reason I want to do this is to have bit more expensive interface with better converters than my Apollo for some external hardware processing. Don't get me wrong, Apollos converters are perfectly fine but I'm kind of anal about sound and there are better converters out there for sure, especially for mastering use etc.

Now my question is, first has anybody here done this before? What kind of interface would you recommend? I was thinking first about Apogee interface but unfortunately it seems there's no adat! So can't use it with my Apollo. I don't need so much I/o, maybe only 4-8 channels for some outboard processing. Maybe Antelope or something like that?

Thanks for any input, even if you haven't done it but have some ideas!

 

What's your budget? If you're trying to have a meaningful difference which would still be miniscule to most, You're looking at Prism, Merging, Aurora. Antelope would be a sidegrade IMO. Frankly, if you're going to do all this, just use the better interface, it wouldn't make any sense to use a Prism just for inserts, and then monitor through the Apollo, you will miss everything you hypothetically gained, but that's just me.

 

Audient iD44 MKII - 539 €
USB 2.0 desktop audio interface
- 2 ADAT inputs and outputs for digital expansion
https://audient.com/products/audio-interfaces/id44/overview

Audient iD44 MKII – USB Audio Interface Review

Audient iD14 MKII - 217 €
USB 3.0 audio interface
- Connector: USB-C
- Combined ADAT and S/PDIF input (TOSLINK)
https://audient.com/products/audio-interfaces/id14/overview

Audient iD4 MKII and iD14 MKII - Audio Interface Review

 

Audient is also sidegrade

 

Thanks a lot for your replies already guys! My budget could be in thousands. I thought Antelope had better converters, I have the older generation Apollo x6 from 2018 or so, I think they slightly upgraded the converters meanwhile. Reason I'd like to continue using also Apollo is because of the plug-ins, I know some are native but still I'd like to use the onboard dsp too. Also a quick question, I am kind of new to adat and I saw somewhere that you can use only inputs with adat on Apollo but I think that's not true, you can route inputs and outputs both.

I am going to check those interfaces you mentioned, thanks!

I checked also Audient, could be a choice but not sure it's much better converter quality.

 

Audient is still, to this day, one of the top performers. I wouldn't honestly get anything other than an Audient, especially the id14 or id24 if you can afford it. It's the best bang for the buck in the market in terms of features and sound. The SSL is also really good, but I think it lacks a lot of features for the price.

Edit: just read that it seems to be an apollo x6. I think your issue is just GAS. It's a good interface with good preamps. I see no reason to "upgrade".

 

Last edited: Aug 20, 2025 at 4:11 PM