So I got an apogee duet 2

[tito]

I am just unpacking and testing.
First impressions: looks very nice, the click wheel is off centre and does not look proper to throw in you backpack as you can do with an audio 4 or 8 or serato box its not that sturdy. No leopard support so I have to take mi wife computer to make it work after downloading software and drivers in snow leopard (I have not upgrade my gig computer to snow leopard because it is been very stable the last two years in 10.5.8 never crashed on serato and a couple in traktor before 1.2.4 1.2.8 is rock solid and for me that matters instead the bells and whistles of new os).
So I put some music with I tunes and started comparision in the headphones pio 2000) against computer sound card and audio 4 dj. The differences against the MacBook pro were very noticeable and with the audio 4 were too little. The apogee sounded too transparent so a little bit harsh on mids and highs and the lows were straightforward. I have to admit that the NI sounded more pleasant and in the straight comparison on the headphone output of both you are getting too little with the double of price, not worthy.
Then I plugged to my amp (harman kardon with b&w) speakers and then the difference become very noticeable. This apogee is insane loud with no distortion at all, to equal the levels I have to crank more the volume in the audio 4. The duet reveal everything, the stereo separation is amazing and hear the reverb of the cymbals more time than the NI one.
I am not sure which sounds better (subjective matter) but definitely the apogee is more clear.
This friday I will take it to the club and do testings with the nexo PA they have and with my xone 4d that I left last time in the club.
To round up I use serato and traktor almost equally and I can tell that I prefer more the way serato sounds in the club and traktor at home and the xone sound card sounds equally the same that the native instruments one, so would be interesting to compare before they open (fresh ears) and I will post my thoughts.
I haven't tested with traktor (my wife computer does not have installed), I will see.
The next step should be recording but I am afraid the apogee will definitely beat the xone and I will get an audio 8 dj to thes the mic preamps.
Cheers.

[TABS]

if something sounds harsh, it is not the Duet, it is the track you are listening to.