Sonnet Echo Express SE1 Thunderbolt 3 Expansion Chassis (Echo-EXP-SE!-T3)

I am using this to convert my old Areca 1880i RAID controller to an external Thunderbolt 3 RAID card by adding a PCI bracket with SFF-8088 connections to the SFF-8087 connections on the RAID card. The enclosure looks nice, is compact, and the power brick isn't too large. However, for the minuses, the included 60mm fan is somewhat loud, and uses this strange metal bracket to direct the airflow, which seems to be rather pointless. There's plenty of space for a larger fan, depending on the size of your 2nd PCI bracket or daughtercard, so I replaced it with an 80mm be Quiet Silent Wings 2 fan, which improved the noise profile a lot. The 80mm fan can only screw in one corner unless you drill some holes. For me, a single screw held in tight was stable enough. For the other minus, there is no power switch - it is always on, but will turn on/off when your computer turns on/off. Fair enough, but sometimes I don't want the additional fan noise and would like to manually turn it off. I plan on hooking it up to a power strip with individual toggles to fix that issue. Overall, I'd say it works very well for it's intended purpose. Originally I was thinking of getting a eGPU enclosure, but those are very large and with overspecced power supplies - this enclosure is perfect for smaller PCIe cards like RAID, capture card, etc. I'm glad I went with this one.

I am using the Sonnet Echo as a PCIe extension to my Macbook M2 to house an audiophile USB sound card. Works fine, the Mac Audio MIDI Setup sees the DAC through the Sonnet. I'm aware that the box works with both Pink Faun USB bridges and at least one JCat USB card.

I never have to worry when I order from Sonnet. Their products just work. This worked perfectly for my Universal Audio Octo Card. Some have complained they can hear the fan. I have it 10 feet away and if I'm in dead silence I and listening for it, I can barely hear it. So it is really a non issue. I can't imagine people with it sitting in total silence and not listening to music or a podcast. If not in TOTAL SILENCE, you won't hear it.

When the fan kicks in, it is noisy. Otherwise a great product. I bought it to house a Blackmagic Decklink card and it is the loudest device in my live streaming setup. My setup includes a Mac Studio, Two Blackmagic ATEM Extremes, Hyperdecks, Rodecaster Pro 2, TV Studio HD/8 ISO. I may change out the fan for a Noctura or something similar.

This works really well with my Blackmagic Decklink quad. Wish I had bought the one with 3 pci ports though.

I have an HTC Vive and I've been researching for weeks about how to get the wireless adapter to work on a laptop. I found this solution in a forum and gave it a try. I have a high-end alienware laptop which obviously has no internal PCI-e slots for use. This device worked great and it now allows me to play VR games wireless. Warning, do not buy this without researching first. I read that Alienware is compatible for certain models and if you update your BIOS, but it certainly won't work for all gaming laptops. I have a 17 r4 and I know it also work with the r5 models. P.S. to Sonnet: Consider marketing this capability for compatible laptops; there are tons of forums where frustrated Vive owners vent about the useless adapter that was released because they believe it is a PC-only card.

I bought this product for use with an audio PCIe card, but upon receiving it found that it has severe coil whine. Could be a one off problem, I thought, so I returned it to Amazon and bought another. Nope, same issue on the new unit. So I arranged an RMA with Sonnet to see if they could eliminate the issue on their end. 2 months and $150 of shipping later I finally receive it back, and lo and behold, it has the same issue. Now Sonnet are telling me that the issue is probably my power and that there is nothing they can do to assist me. How can such a simple device have so many issues and be so difficult to work with? Strongly not recommended. stay away from this product and save yourself the hassle.

I wasn't even sure this was going to work with my ATTO Raid card, but I thought I would give it a shot. Plugged in the card, plugged into the computer, MacBook Pro, and wow, it saw the card right away, and I was able to get my LTO drive working immediately, no drivers needed. It's quiet, and feels quite well made.

This is the best Pcie / thunderbolt extension in the market for Mac.

Does exactly what it says on the tin, allows use of a PCIe card with a daughter board. Be aware, there is a difference between _Thunderbolt 2_ and _Thunderbolt 3_. Thunderbolt 2 is a squareish connector. Thunderbolt 3 shares form with the USB-C connector and has extra functionality on top of USB-C, and is thin and wide with rounded edges, also reversible. This is a TB3 dock. They also sell a different TB2 enclosure which looks the same other than the ports at the back. It says that external graphics cards are not supported, but they sell a separate GPU dock for that. This is most likely due to the huge power draws for graphics cards. This has a small fan, but it's fairly quiet and for the tech handy can be replaced. The slot type is PCIe, not the old PCI standard (but adapters exist). It has 2 ports for the intended Thunderbolt passthrough, a premium over many TB products that only has a single port and have to form the end of a chain. Sonnet has a very useful compatibility chart on their website showing a mass of PCIe cards they have tested. showing the compatibility is very high. This is something I strongly appreciated, as Thunderbolt is a rather messy technology and there has been a string of poor and crashy implementations and docks. Build quality is good and light weight, made for standing on a desk, not really flimsy but not built like a tank either. On par with an external hard drive, definitely portable but I would be careful with it. Swapping out the card does take a minute as you have to unscrew the feet. For several cards I would get their 3-card enclosure, but that's also 3x the price. I bought this for use with an UAD-2 card in Pro Tools, and it works great. I did a lot of research beforehand and it seems to be the best and safest for what it does.

Fan is pretty loud, but otherwise great

カードのセット 及び セット後について現在までトラブルは起きていない。 サンダーボルト以外の出力がないことが清々しい。 当然、ほかの出力がない。高価にも係わらずにだ。それが欠点といえば欠点で、−１とした。

funktioniert vom ersten Moment an. Bisher keinerlei Aussetzer o.ä. Ich verwende den Echo Express am iMac 2019, als Adapter für eine IDE DSP Karte. Ja, der Lüfter ist zu hören, aber ich empfinde es nicht als Störend. Zur Not, kann man ein längeres USB Kabel holen und das Gerät somit weiter wegstellen.