Looking to upgrade my interface from an Apollo Twin X. The Ensemble ticks all the boxes in what I want in an interface, but looks like they've been out of production for awhile. Are they still working with M1 Macs and current OS? I wish they'd release an updated version of the Ensemble. The Symphony Desktop looks cool but it's got no I/O for OTB hardware processing. And the Symphony MkII looks nice but is out of my budget for now.

How does the Ensemble stack up to modern Apogee converters, as well as other interfaces? TIA.

For anyone in the future researching this topic, here's the answer I got from Apogee customer support-

Me:
Product: Ensemble Thunderbolt
Platform: macOS 13.x Ventura
Country: United States
Subject: Ensemble support, and compatibility
Description: Hi, I'm looking at buying a used Ensemble until I can afford the Symphony MkII SE for mastering. The Ensemble has all of the options and I/O I'm looking for in an interface. But I'm wondering if it's still compatible with M1 Macs and the current OS? How long does Apogee plan to support this product? How are the converters compared to the Symphony MkII? You guys should really come out with an updated Ensemble! Thanks



Apogee CS: Yes Ensemble Thunderbolt is compatible with all current Intel, M1 and M2 Macs up to OS 13.

Although these units are no longer in production there is no end of support date as yet.
We'll continue driver updates for future Mac hardware and OS versions for years to come. Generally this is at least 5 years until this is declared a legacy product.

You can see the current software/firmware for Ensemble Thunderbolt here, this is:
Apogee Control Software Version: 6.0.25
Firmware: Firm 1.5.3.6, FPGA 0.56
You will download the Ensemble Thunderbolt driver here
The complete guide is here

The specs for Ensemble and Symphony Mk II are very closely matched, Symphony Mk II would be technically higher but you would likely not notice any difference in a blind test.


You can compare the specs for both here:
Ensemble Thunderbolt
Symphony Mk II

We may have new units announced later in the year but currently I don't have any timeline on when this will be released.

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New units, they say? Sounds like there could be an updated Ensemble in our future :O

The Apogee Symphony Desktop has Adat in/out, the DSP can be used on the Adat ins. I'm using a Symphony desktop with an inexpensive Evo SP-8, it works flawlessly. I would rather future proof my set up with the latest technology.

I already found a good deal on an Ensemble, but I did closely consider the Symphony Desktop. But in the end the I/O options and guitar centric features of the Ensemble made it a no brainer for me. Hopefully they'll support it for awhile yet until I'm ready to move to the big Symphony MkII. Which at that point I'll probably keep the Ensemble to expand the Symphony's I/O if I need. I travel quite a bit for work but only track guitar when I'm on the road, so I've been considering either a Symphony Desktop or even a BOOM for that (currently using the Apollo Arrow).

Then the question becomes if any of the older Apogee boxes brick, can any run in stand alone mode? And is it worth the drama at that point VS newer tech is so much better (maybe maybe not?