The BEST Thunderbolt Dock for Mac Users: Sonnet Echo 20 SuperDock Review
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- Опубліковано 24 вер 2023
- In this video, we're taking a look at the Sonnet Echo 20 SuperDock, a Thunderbolt 4 dock with tons of ports and a built in NVME SSD Slot! I also really love the built in RCA jacks on this dock for plugging into my powered speakers.
This dock is perfect for those who need a fast and reliable way to connect their Mac to a monitor, keyboard, and other peripherals. We'll show you how to use this dock and compare it to other Thunderbolt 4 docks on the market. You'll be able to decide whether or not this dock is the best option for you!
Echo 20 Super Dock: geni.us/bxBGyt
NVME Drive I Like: geni.us/JtJ5O0
Echo 11 Dock: geni.us/yBDiKAU
Echo 11 HDMI Dock: geni.us/Lir4hUn
My Favorite Mac Monitor: geni.us/sbvQFN
My Computer: geni.us/1UZadC
My Studio Monitors: geni.us/T20Y
SSD Compatibility Chart: www.sonnettech.com/support/do...
Shot on This Camera: geni.us/72r3r
With This Lens: geni.us/aij2sTV
This Microphone: geni.us/XkpHW5
B Roll Lens: : geni.us/m7VD (Amazon)
My Full Video Making Kit: kit.co/a2vtech/youtube-video-kit
Lights I like
Govee Lyra Floor Lamp: geni.us/nK0ALR
Nanlite T87X Tube Light: geni.us/QBczAZ
Philips Hue Gradient Light Tube: geni.us/b0GsV5Z
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Dude! This is insane. All the must haves I am looking for in my new dockingstation, checks out. I bought the dock after you mentioned your Adam Audio speakers! I plan to get those too! This video is so much fun to watch. Thanks!
Thanks so much! Sounds like we geek out over the same things! :D
Thanks for your excellent review and comments to peoples questions.
Any time! What should I review next?
@@adamtalkstech I can't think of anything right now, but I just ordered one of these and the thing I'm concerned about the most is how hot it will become under heavy use.
@@adamtalkstech Also, I'm an audio engineer and will be plugging my audio interface into the dock - and I'm a little nervous if the dock will add to the round-trip delay and affect the device and process block sizes in the DAW
I haven’t had any issues on logic recording with it. It does get hot but nothing that concerns me
Great video thank you
Thanks for the support!
Well done, thanks for this! One question that came up in my mind is this: having a powered dock like this in general kind of flies in the face of the "don't leave your laptop plugged in all the time while working" school of thought. I'm not up on the latest thoughts on the issue though. What do you think? Or is there a way to connect a laptop to this and *not* have it charge? Thanks!
Does Tenderbolt 4 work on the Apple iPad Pro M2 system and modern smartphones?
Do you think it's okay at heat dissipation? Both in general for the whole dock (I heard the caldigit ts4 runs very hot) as well as regarding the nvme drive on the bottom since there is no fan or thermal paste or whatnot on it.
Hoping to pick this up but I am a power user (professional video editor that is at the computer probably 12 hours a day) so I worry about using the nvme for backing up client projects but it would be really nice to have a 4TB backup to current projects while my raid server remains my archival storage.
Hey big work from home video and photo guy here. No issues with heat for whole dock. I have it in that cubby of my desk that you can see throughout the video. I think there’s a thermal pad on the bottom of the lid (it was red and felt soft on top of the metal plate).
I leave it plugged in for tons of 12+ hour spans and I’ll use it at 5 pm and then again at 8 am and the drive is still connected and fine.
I’m pretty much just putting a copy of my video files on the drive or duplicating my fcpx library at the end of the day so if I accidentally deleted something from my computer I’ve still got it. Let me know if you want to know anything else I may have missed in the video. I really liked the echo 11 and bought two of them but I reached out to sonnet for this one and they sent it to me to review and with all the ports on the front it really is a game changer for my setup.
@@adamtalkstech thank you for the info! I've had my eye on the sonnet 20 for a few months now but wanted more reviews like yours to come out, so thanks for making the video!
hello. Do you know the quality or bandwith of RCA output? Which chip is used for the DAC for RCA output?
I do not but I will reach out to my contact at sonnet and find out.
Does it work without a problems?
Thanks for the lengthy reviews about these rather rare docks... What I am not certain about and want to ask: You use a MacBook Pro 14 with it, right? It seems the power adapter isn't that beefy, not as strong as the Caldigit TS4. So power to the laptop might be reduced if too many things are attached... If you had a 16 inch you could maybe speak from experience, but since you have the 14 inch I bet you never encounter that phenomenon no matter how much is attached to the dock.
You get 100 watts on echo 20 and 90 Watts on the Echo 11. I have the 14" I used with the echo 20 and 11. I have a 16" m2 pro and I had a 2019 16" I used with the Echo 11 and have had no issues with power on it and running Ableton Live for Multitracks playback.
@@adamtalkstech Oh wow so with the Echo 11 you also had no problem with your 16 inch? That is great to hear! How about ... using the Echo 20 with your 16 inch... with a couple of your external SSDs plugged in, maybe another external HDD, charging your phone... Would that be enough to reduce the power output to the laptop? I read somewhere that someone managed to make the Echo 20 only output 60W to the 16inch... that would not be good ...
I haven't got to use the 16 with the Echo 20, it's at work and my Echo 20 is at home. Not sure how they got the wattage that low, but I mainly use the dock to interface with my mixer, guitar pedals, keyboards, the NVME drive thats built in and one or two SSDs at a time. a lot of times I use a thunderbolt SSD I run straight into my computer.@@marckyokay
Great review! One question. I will buy the m2/m3 macbook pro with the pro chip. I have two USB-C Monitors. Is it possible to use this dock to connect the two USB-C monitors via USB-C and extend the image from the MacBook to the monitors? I have the 27" Dell S2722QC Monitors. Thanks!
Yup that will work great!!
@@adamtalkstech thank you! It also should support 4k 60hz right? Still deciding between this one and the Caldigit TS4..
Can I connect 1 4K monitor via HDMI and 1 4K monitor via USB-c port? I want to retain the 2 thunderbolt 4 ports for thunderbolt drives. Computer is MacBook m3 Max
Yup that should work great depending on what monitor it is!
I went for the Caldigit TS4
I want to try one at some point.
Hi! Can you connect 2 extended monitors on a macbook air m1, one using hdmi and other on thunderbolt 2 monitor?
No the M1 airs only support one external display. You would need to get one of the Display Link Docks from this page: www.sonnetstore.com/collections/thunderbolt-docks/products/echo13-triple-4k-display-dock
Thank you! I will buy this one then.
I heard a bunch of complaints about the TS4 ejecting external drives when their MacBook pros go to sleep. Does this dock do that as well? I’m trying to decide between the two, thanks.
It does not. Drives stay connected till you remove the thunderbolt cord from your MacBook.
Chris Wilmshust did a video on this dock and said his MacBook Pro restarted several times while it was in sleep mode while plugged into this dock. Has this happened to you?
No never with this dock. Sounds like a Kernel panic that I have had issues with external displays triggering on my MacBooks in the past. @@patientmoney_ftw9068
Between this and the TS4 what would you pick, and why, just curious.
Also, can you connect 4 monitors with this set up and the new max m3
Don’t call me Jack 😂. Just kidding. Great video. Does it have a fan or is it fully silent?
Fully silent!
@@adamtalkstech great! I have a Dell TB16 with a really loud fan. Will be glad to get rid of that. Unfortunately Sonnet don’t seem to be very well serious in Europe. The only reseller that sells this dock through Amazon and wants 500 dollars 😭 and it’s 299 in the US. Hope they get it together in Europe. Thanks again
Did you check their website?
@@adamtalkstech yes. They ony have a few resellers is europe
I got this for my Macbook M2 Pro. Plugged in my external monitor into the HDMI and get nothing. Do I need to load some other software? Anyone have this problem?
You shouldn’t. It’s been plug n play when I’ve used with external monitors on the hdmi out. Is it showing up on system preferences and displays?
Does it support Linux?
Only one HDMI port? No display?
No built in display port but it can be adapted from usb or thunderbolt.
The thing with limiting the nvme SSD drive speed to 800MB/s is a deal breaker. 😣
I know what you mean, but it just makes it more of an aux storage drive than a working drive. can't tell you how often I am thankful for the extra 2 TB of storage
Yeah, but I was so excited to hear it has this slot due to the insane speed of those drives. It is such a wasted potential. Know I still don’t know which one to pick - this one or Caldigit TS4 which now is cheaper on Amazon than Sonnet. Have you tried to edit 4k footage directly from Sonnet drive? Is it possible in FCPX? First I thought what a great device I could set up FCPX library there
I have done it fine, but I always recommend thunderbolt drives hitting 2000mbps + for 4k vid editing
Only missing a Display Port. HDMI is a poor man’s display port due to sub par refresh rates.
That's fair. I haven't had a display port monitor in a few years
Runs way toooo hot. Not doing much through it except for powering my Mac and one monitor. Really burning up.
Weird. No warmer than any other dock I’ve used.
Yeah. I guess that’s normal then. Just could warm a sandwich on it. 😂