However, the Thunderbolt port carries some power once you let the genie out of the bottle. As a result, Thunderbolt expansion docks come in pretty steep at about $250 each, and even Thunderbolt cables average about $30 for a 3ft. Thunderbolt requires more in the way of support electronics, the cables themselves have entire chipsets in them, hence the increased cost.īecause the standard hasn’t been widely accepted yet, Thunderbolt devices haven’t benefitted from economies of scale like USB devices, and to some extent, FireWire devices before them. Thunderbolt interfaces may not be right for everyone, for the simple fact that most Thunderbolt products-hard drives and soundcards included-still cost noticeably more than their USB counterparts. We put two portable, DJ-appropriate Thunderbolt soundcards through the paces for your consideration: the Universal Audio Apollo Twin with onboard DSP and included plug-ins, and the Resident Audio T4 with MIDI I/O. If you’re running low on USB ports for your DJ rig, live show or studio, a Thunderbolt audio interface can free up a USB port while providing crazy fast bandwidth for pristine high-resolution audio at nearly zero detectable latency. Years after their first appearance, many Thunderbolt ports still go unused.
