As we still have a number of requests for support regarding the ASP880 and UA Apollo devices - we wanted to revisit this with an update to clear up any confusion.
Here is the full situation:
The first batch of ASP880 units (all sold now - most of which we recalled before they left distribution and re-programmed) had a PLL bandwidth setting that could not be corrected by the Apollo clock recovery when using the ASP880 as a slave device over BNC wordclock, due to drifts between the BNC clock and the ADAT data sent by ASP880. We resolved this with a firmware update after serial 14-01-0614-xxxx and most of all the units before June 2014 have been re-programmed. All new units since June 2014 have the firmware correction in place.
We should mention that this has only been reported as an issue with the Apollo and other units seem to recover the data either way with no sync issues, so it did not appear even in our very thorough production test jigs. We'd like to thank UA for lending us Apollos so we could make sure that this pairing is super stable for all of you!
In all cases - when using the ASP880 as master clock and slaving the Apollo via ADAT only (no BNC) - there were never any issues and the system will function fine with no click & pop issues regardless of firmware version. With an Apollo Twin - where no BNC wordclock output is available - you would have to slave the Apollo using the ASP880 as master with clock over ADAT and thus no issues will be experienced in this config either, on all firmware versions.
As we still receive several support requests about this combination and we very much love to see our ASP880 preamps hanging off all of your Apollo interfaces - we thought this post would help end users get the correct clocking configuration when using the ASP880 as BNC wordclock slave from an Apollo rack unit or other popular devices. Typically we are seeing users attempting to run two masters un-sync'd instead of using one master and slave(s) scenario.
If you have a serial number earlier than 14-01-0614-xxxx (0614 is the production date) send us a support request to get your firmware checked out. If you have a unit later than June 2014 - please refer to your clocking arrangement as the majority of our support tickets we have seen in the last year have been due to incorrect clocking configurations and not issues with the firmware.
We've knocked up a useful set of images to show how to hook up your clocking and this should be followed first before assuming there is a firmware issue, and we hope that helps people get the most out of this powerful combination! :-)
