Apogee Duet 3 2x4 USB-C Audio Interface Reviews

Portable and perfect for my needs.

I am an Apogee fann and this is my first Apogee interface. I am a keyboardist and most of the time I don't need many i/o (in my use anyways). The audio quality is amazing, love the super portable form factor. To use the interface and its physical presence is very pleasant to experience, it feels/looks extra awesome because I have it set up with the Duet 3 dock. Totally recommend the Duet 3.

I asked Jeff, my Sweetwater contact, what is a step up from my Focusrite Scarlett Solo for audio recording. He presented me with the Apogee Duet 3. Not only is the interface stronger in gain, it's also pretty to look at, and reliable with hardly any latency. It came with a free Apogee ECS Channel Strip that has also helped my recordings become clearer. I'm quite happy with this interface!

I had a rought start with this box. But once I updated the firmware it has been great. I'm a long time Apogee user having been a Duet 1st generation. The III is above and beyond the orginal. The ECS channel strip is awesome and sounds really good.
The mixer interface is nice. Works flawlessy with my M1 mac. It is the perfect interface for the song writer. I would reccomend this to anyone wanting a high end 2 channel work of art.

I owned the duet 2 for 8 years and was so happy with it when I needed to upgrade I felt like the duet 3 would be a great choice but with all the new interfaces on the market was a little torn. I have been using the duet 3 at least 8-10 hours a day 5 days a week over the last two months. Not one problem yet. There were a couple of user based errors I made but the tech support was fantastic and got me back on track right away. Even with my duet 2 when it was out of warranty they would always help troubleshoot and fix. Tech support is incredible, Apogee is a company that cares. I teach guitar and use the duet as my sound source plugging direct from the iridium. I record a lot of tracks for my students and my YouTube videos. When I record my my videos I mic an amp and play bass direct. Sounds fantastic very noticeable upgrade from duet 2. I have recorded demos with vocals and acoustic guitar. Very low noise and works seamlessly with logic. Plug and play! Good to go. I feel like the Duet 3 is a strong value. The channel strip plug in is great and net being an engineer the presets are great. I nearly went with the Apollo Twin as I am also a UA fan but I really glad I stuck with apogee as the extra 700 dollars I saved I am putting towards other gear I need. David my sales rep was fantastic, had all the time in the world to discuss choices for a new interface. I highly recommend the Duet 3 and Sweetwater.

Apogee duet 3 is small, comes with a carrying case n a long breakout cable. What is really like about this is the preamp. It's super clean. Did I mention about the 0 ohm headphone jack.

Very nice interface with amazing build and audio quality. The dock is a must have. The dock arrive several weeks after my Duet 3. At first I thought the dock should have been an included accessory. After receiving it I understood why. Although very functional useable, there is an apparent difference in build quality.

I was a long time Duet FW user, then went through various low-end interfaces when recording was not a major focus of mine. I got back into home recording and figured it was time for an upgrade when I saw there was a new version of the Duet coming. It's everything I remember, and more. Pristine sound quality, sleek & beautiful, a no-brainer with Logic/Macs, and the ECS channel strip is killer. On my first project with the Duet 3, I tracked bass plugging my P-bass straight in and printing with the ECS channel strip's suggested bass setting with a few minor tweaks. Absolutely solid tones!

I moved to this from a Presonus AudioOne. That unit was perfectly good for a $ unit. In fact I would say it punched above its weight for that price. But this is noticeably better. If you are looking for professional quality sound from your home studio this is the ticket.

I've been a MOTU interface user since the very first firewire 828. Ive used firewire 828 , 828mkII, 896, TravelerV1.I needed a new replacement for a new M1 Mac mini, since the old firewire interfaces were going through multiple converters to the computer, they were all unstable. I was going to get a new UltraliteMK5, but they have been out of stock for a while and were not expecting shipments until November. I needed to do some ADR voiceover work immediately. Talked to my sales rep and he suggested the Duet 3 in the meantime. I've been using it for the last 3 days 16 hours a day for this project and it's been STABLE. Great monitoring sound via headphones and speaker, and a solid mic pre with the DSP channel. I'm super happy buying a demo version. I'll need to upgrade soon to a larger interface so I can incorporate my outboard gear, but for the time being, it's exactly what I needed.

Great sounding interface... when it's working. It cuts out whenever it's in the mood. To remedy it I had to mess with the sample rate (something I read online). I'm running an M1 chip. Thanks to Sweetwater for its easy return policy.

I gave this 3 stars because as soon as I plugged it in to try it out it started freezing my computer, then when I was a actually recording it would bug out when I was changing the sample rates in my Daw and couldn't hear any sound.Then the purple light went out and wouldn't let me change any settings on the interface itself it's like it locked itself up. Maybe I got sent a faulty unit but the concept and the sound quality are great !

Former Duet 2 owner. Just traded up to the Duet 3. No complaints in terms of conversion, pre-amps, etc. Feels like a small step up from the Duet 2 in every regard except for metering and MacOS integration.

But I'm really disappointed in this 'upgrade'. The issues I have may not matter to some (in which case, I can wholeheartedly recommend this unit!), but they drastically reduce the usability of the device for me.

When adjusting system volume on MacOS using the Duet, there's no visual feedback on screen (ie: system volume HUD overlay). The Duet 2 (at least pre MacOS 12) handled this perfectly. When I inquired with Apogee I was told: "The feature that displays volume/gain change is no longer available. However, you should be able to see the changes you make via Duet 3 level meters."

Were that actually the case, that would be a fine solution, but the Duet 3 level meters are terribly designed with no numeric scale, or any legible visual feedback to indicate volume level, just two green LED's moving up and down a slab of glossy black glass with no reference marks or indicators (see photo). And there's no LED feedback at all on the device when adjusting input levels. The only way to gauge your input or output levels is to have Apogee Control software open and watch the meters on your computer monitor while you turn the knob on your device. Compare to the photo of the Duet 2 which has both numeric and graphic feedback.

One other quibble:
Built in DSP is great, but would be more useful if they had added an insert on master output/playback from within Control software, rather than just on the record bus.

Again, great sound, very well built, works seamlessly with all of the usual applications. But for me, the lack of any onboard functional metering is a dealbreaker, making this device a very beautiful exercise in minimalist industrial design that puts form well before function, forcing users to look at the Apogee Control software to glean even the most basic information about the device's status. A small step forward in sound quality, and a significant step back in usability. I miss my Duet 2. I'm two days in to the Duet 3 and I'm ready to sell it.

I also bought this right when it came out. I use a PC with Ableton, not a Mac. I would advise anyone with a PC not to buy this just yet. As with many other PC users, I am experiencing very violent audio distortions when recording and playing back, the audio takes 2 seconds to kick in when I havn't been listening to something for a few moments, and many times I have to cold disconnect the unit from my computer while audio is playing. It sounds great, but in hindsight I think I should have gone with a Clarett as it is probably on par with this device and still a step up from my Scarlett. I also contacted Sweetwater technical support and was able to change some settings on my computer, however the fix only lasted a few hours.

Sounds great when it works. Glitches out constantly though. Apparently it works great on apple but it's not even usable for me on Windows. Apogee has done a couple firmware updates but none have improved its performance for me. Too late for me to return it, my only hope is to sell it or wait for Apogee will fix the drivers.

Ive recently purchased the Duet 3 and have been putting in thru its paces. Ive recently had my DT 770 Pro headphones damaged/ blown (after 3 months) due to a faulty software update that was sent out by Apogee. Tech support only offered a discount code for future products/ purchases and said damaged caused by the product is not covered under warranty. Im using a brand new M1 Macbook pro and have been seeing issues with this unit pop on the PC but its also plagued with problems on both units(Apple & PC). I recommend staying away from the Duet 3 until more reviews come in and its truly been battle tested. Save yourself the headache of doing warranty repairs and having to deal with a company who's aware of issues but does not want to take accountability for these known problems. Great sound but terrible support and internals.

I bought the Duet3 as soon as it was released. I trusted the apogee brand however, it really disappointed me this time:


1. The volume takes few seconds to turn up after a long pause
2. A loud electronic noise will pop up occasionally when using (I've seen other YouTubers report this as well)
3. I had to unplug the device once during recording to stop the noise

I've followed the apogee customer service instructions, switch the computer to optimal mode and change for higher buffer size, but the problem still exists.
I'm upgrading my interface from Focusrite 2i2 3rd Gen to Duet3. Duet3 triple the price but I need to change to a higher buffer size when recording???!! Also, the electronic noise is happening during playing music, why is that??
I've attached the link to a video of the noise.

They seem to not have the drivers for this sorted out for Windows. I get random screeching, volume swells (that almost blew out my headphones), freezing, etc. I have uninstalled and installed multiple times following the appropriate directions. The sounds quality is really good when it wants to work, it's just not dependable.


Waited months to get this and was let down for sure, sending it back.