Guys, I'm looking to upgrade soon (interface) and struggling to wrap my head around this. Hope someone could help.
Sold my original silver face apollo 2+ years ago and didn't miss it that much (prior to owning my XL+, pre-UA thunderbolt and Unison) -- I loved the UA plugs but never warmed up to UA's console for low-latency monitoring. I know Logic and love it... really don't want a DAW inside my DAW just to record latency-free with other VIs, VSTs etc running.
I've been considering the new Apogee Symphony MkII (thunderbolt) -- pristine sound and low-latency tracking with no console kludges. As a more affordable thunderbolt option, I've also considered the Focusrite Clarett line.
But now that Apollo has TB + Unison I'm reconsidering a UA interface again. But my question is -- do I have to track through UA's console to take advantage of thunderbolt's low-latency? And how would I track with Unison -- plug into the Apollo's hi-Z and connect the XL+ via SPDIF? Or could I connect to the XL+ hi-Z and then line out/SPDF into the Apollo (I guess I'm not sure if Unison is hi-Z/mic-only).
Bottom line -- what's your round-trip latency like tracking through the Apollo thunderbolt? If it's sub < 5ms I guess I might bite the bullet and learn UA's console (I'm sure they've updated since I sold my original Apollo, because back then I don't even think the console supported routing of 3rd party VIs (not sure if I described that properly, I'm pretty ignorant in these matters... I'm just a bass player!)
I really, really miss UA's Lexicon reverb, Unison sounds great and I did manage to record some great stuff -- I just always struggled with tracking with latency and VIs (mostly Slate Drums).
Thanks for any insight!