Sonnet Debuts Echo 15 Thunderbolt Dock – Full-Featured Docking Station for Mac & PC

Your laptop is getting lighter – that’s a good thing. But the slimmer profile may very well mean that your connectivity has shrunk along with it.

To assist you with that dilemma, Sonnet has introduced the Echo 15 Thunderbolt Dock, a new fully featured docking station for Mac and Windows computers equipped with Thunderbolt ports.

Audio pros shouldn’t lack for connections with this unit on hand — the Echo 15 features 15 ports: four USB 3.0, one Gigabit Ethernet, one FireWire 800, one headphone, one microphone, one speaker, one audio in, one pass-through Thunderbolt (for either another Thunderbolt device or an external display), two eSATA, and two internal SATA (one port for included optical disc drive and one 6 Gb/s port for a user-installable 2.5-inch SSD or 3.5-inch hard drive). The Echo 15 Thunderbolt Dock also includes an 8x DVD±RW drive, or optionally, a Blu-ray BD-ROM/8x DVD±RW drive with Blu-ray player software for OS X.

Get it all in and out of your Thunderbolt-equipped laptop, in one stop.

Compatible with OS X 10.8.2+, Windows 8, and Windows 7, all models are expected to be available by summer. MSRP for the Echo 15 Thunderbolt Dock with DVD Drive is $399.95; MSRP with Blu-ray Drive is $449.95; the MSRP with DVD drive plus 2TB HDD is $499.95; and the super-deluxe version with Blu-ray drive plus 2TB HDD has an MSRP OF $549.95.

Here’s a deeper explanation of the Echo 15 Thunderbolt Dock, direct from Sonnet Technologies:

With the introduction of new, thinner, lighter computers, manufacturers continue to remove interfaces and optical drives that were once standard. The Echo 15 Thunderbolt Dock offers a simple way to restore FireWire 800, Gigabit Ethernet, eSATA, audio, and add additional USB 3.0 connectivity plus an optical drive to load software, import CDs, burn CDs and DVD-ROMs, and play DVDs and even Blu-ray movies.

Peripherals are left connected to the dock using standard cables, while the dock connects to the computer with a single Thunderbolt cable. When it is time to take the computer and go, the user needs only to disconnect the Thunderbolt cable.

With the purchase of the Sonnet dock with Blu-ray drive option, software to enable Blu-ray disc playback on Mac computers is included. All models support the installation of a standard SSD or hard drive for backing up data or hosting a media library. For Mac users, this means their Time Machine backup drive can be installed inside the dock.

Sonnet designed the Echo 15 Thunderbolt Dock for maximum flexibility in use. The case may be set horizontally or vertically to save space on the desktop. Both the front and back of the enclosure include USB 3.0, audio input, and audio output connections to support the handy connection of devices such as a microphone, thumb drives, headphones, or a cell phone for synching and rapid charging. The internal drive bay supports the installation of either a 6 Gb/s SATA 2.5-inch SSD or 3.5-inch HDD, providing an ideal solution for adding storage capacity without having to connect another external drive and its power brick. Dual Thunderbolt ports enable the Echo 15 Thunderbolt Dock to support daisy-chaining of Thunderbolt peripherals, and to be placed anywhere in a Thunderbolt device chain. The Echo dock also supports the connection of a Thunderbolt or display port monitor, or other display interface type with an appropriate adapter.

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