Which Setup?

Which setup would you chose and why? 1. Rode NTK into Avalon 737 sp into Apogee Rosetta into 001 2. Rode NTK into Apogee Trak 2 into 001

I havent used any of these, but I would go for the Avalon through the Rosetta setup because it offers more flexibility when you want to experiment with pres, because like mics, the same one wont work for everything. Plus you can use the rosetta for other things as well, like being the front end to your cd burner, if you have one, to go direct to disc. If I'm not mistaken, it can also be used as a D/A. I've heard some great things about the Trak2 nevertheless.

Definatly the first option!

i'd probably go for neither. i haven't really liked anything Apogee have made since the AD1000 and the Avalon 737SP, while good for many things, is not quite as versatile as you might imagine. there are mods that can be done to the comp and eq that do enhance it somewhat and it is going to be a massive improvement over the 001 preamps but it's not quite all it's cracked up to be, i'm afraid. when you are spending that kind of money, there are quite a few options that you might want to consider, both new and used. for example, a used focusrite ISA115 or ISA215 might be an option (focusrite make crap these days). perhaps something from the AMEK 9098 range. the list is extensive...