I've been quite happy with my Focusrite Forte for several years... mic pre's are just stunning and as a singer songwriter, it has kept me smilin' with one exception: latency...
 
I've accepted that issue but am in the process of retiring and will hopefully clear enough on my home sale to comfortably afford a few upgrades... I've followed every thread for years, watching... and am always perplexed by claims of thunderbolt's zero latency which doesn't seem to pan out and Jim's (Roseberry's) continuing to point out that RME is still king of the hill in terms of stability and latency.
 
I have NO need for the more elaborate interfaces... mic/line (bass/guitar) inputs are enough... I'm a solo dude...
 
Intregued by the new Apollo, looks lovely and sounds like win10 issues/drivers have been resolved.  The possibility of adding UAD stuff to my rig is nice, although I'm pretty happy with all of my current huge library of quality plugs and Sonar's improved load balancing has left my 12 core's evenly distributed and with loads of headroom, so offloading this from my cpu isn't an issue at present.  
 
Both units are similarly priced... I don't need the ancillary RME ins/outs... what to do.... In that regard, I do have usb3.1/C built into my ROG Asus and 3.1 onboard desktop Asus MB and card space left if C is needed.
 
Hope Jim thoroughly reviews/specs out full issues of the Apollo soon... I'll be tackling this issue come the new year, after I finish relocating...  I have to admit, simplicity is best for my primitive little brain.  Already that puts RME in the drivers seat, I would think...  

i have a babyface pro,
have already talked about it before, you can search..
 
but in short,
i like it.
 
super stable.
super clean preamps.
very easy to setup in the 'totalmix' window
 
 

Yea, I'm leaning that way...maybe this is an irrelevent post, I don't know... Most important is latency and mic pre's rivaling my Forte... I've read all the RME posts for years but the whole usb-C/Apollo thingy is new but it has been talked about.  Hoping for Jim's further analysis on the Apollo.  I have a month or so to ruminate!  Forte still works fine...sans latency...
 
Ultimately, I'll buy from Sweetwater to be able to exchange one or the other re: mic pre's... I am quite enamoured with the modified rednet Forte pre's... as a singer, I've never been so happy about that aspect, owning a dozen interfaces over the decades...don't wanna downgrade in that respect...

from what I gather internetting, the Apollo Twin USB DUO won't give you much in the way of multiple plugs running at the same time.
 
Also, if apollo, UAD is having a sale on till end of year.
 
I have an RME (AIO) and it's been good.
 
Question: So, does 'USB 3.1' mean 'thunderbolt' ?
I don't understand that. 

Thunderbolt is moving to use the "usb C" hookup but the side being f'd needs to be thunderbolt ready... it does make it way more feasible/logical for more thunderbolt to reach pcs...
 
The Apollo usb is not thunderbolt but running usb 3 using the crummy ole blue cable... Why it's not running 3.1, which is double the speed and increased current, IDK... 

USB is not Thunderbolt, quite different technologies though the latest Macs use the same socket for both.

Don't know why anyone would say Thunderbolt has "zero latency" because nothing can. It takes time to convert audio to digital and vice versa and no way round that.

For audio purposes USB3.1's bandwidth is irrelevant, as is Thunderbolt's. It's unlikely an interface can shift enough data to max out USB2. I use an RME UFX connected to a Thunderbolt to Firewire adaptor on my MacBook Pro and it easily handles everything the UFX's 12 inputs can send to it at 44.1KHz, including monitoring most inputs via Logic. If I don't mind a round-trip latency of around 12ms I can add another 8 inputs via ADAT, and still Firewire handles it OK.

Data throughput higher than USB2 can handle is maybe an issue if you need the number of inputs and outputs a big studio might need, but for most purposes it's fine.

As for latency, I can get a stable under 3ms round trip using USB2, USB3 or Firewire to Thunderbolt so long as I don't load the DAW with plugins much and don't try to monitor more than a few channels through the DAW. I usually track and sequence at around 6ms round trip latency which in the real world is fine. Unless you have diffculty keeping in time with an amp or drummer six feet from you because it takes 6ms for their sounds to reqch your ears.

Apollo vs RME I have no opinion on, only having used RME. What I can say is that historically RME have been very good at supporting discontinued versions of their products rather than putting you in the "new version of the OS is out, so here's your chance to shell out loads of money on our latest product - or stick with one we no longer offer any support for at all" loop.

And never assume your input/output needs of today will be the same in a couple of year's time.

tlw
What I can say is that historically RME have been very good at supporting discontinued versions of their products rather than putting you in the "new version of the OS is out, so here's your chance to shell out loads of money on our latest product - or stick with one we no longer offer any support for at all" loop.

I've seen this opinion before and don't quite agree.
RME dropped support on an interface I had by not updating drivers to 64 bit.
(the hammerfall 9652)
 
I believe this was back in the transition days of XP to Win764.

timidi

tlw
What I can say is that historically RME have been very good at supporting discontinued versions of their products rather than putting you in the "new version of the OS is out, so here's your chance to shell out loads of money on our latest product - or stick with one we no longer offer any support for at all" loop.

I've seen this opinion before and don't quite agree.
RME dropped support on an interface I had by not updating drivers to 64 bit.
(the hammerfall 9652)
 
I believe this was back in the transition days of XP to Win764.

 
I was surprised to read this timidi since I have the older Multiface II and drivers are still being updated about every 4-5 months. Which I do find that continuing driver support to be pretty incredible. Not sure what else RME can improve by working on the MFII drivers except OS compatibility - but apparently they still tweak for performance improvements as well. That Multiface II performs and sounds so good I forget about it being an older card with no nag to upgrade.
 
I did a quick search and I think.... I found the 64 bit drivers for hammerfall 9652?
 
Here: https://www.rme-audio.de/old/english/download/drivers.htm#HDSP
 
and here: http://www.rme-audio.de/en/downloads/driver/hdspe.php
 
Sounds like you no longer have the card anyway, I was just surprised to read RME dropped support on anything.
 
!! I just noticed RME has updated the drivers for the Multiface II again on 12/15/2016. Like it!
 
 
 

WHOA!
 

I just bought the babyface pro and was totally blown away with the latency.. Total roundtrip 3.1ms 96khz on my system.