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anonymous 22 May 2005

i've been looking at the PreSonus central station, and it has many things that i would love to have, but for the money it seems like a rip off. I was wondering if it would be possible to build a rackmount unit that could control volume for 2 sets of monitors (at different times) and have stereo outs for two seperate headphone amps? Pretty much 2 or 3 sets of stereo ins and 4 sets of stereo outs with a way to patch each in to each out? Is there more involved in this besides a bunch of switches? Even one set of stereo inputs that could be routed to simultaneous outputs would work at the moment... It seems like something like this should cost far less than 500 to build? Is there something commercially available that does this?

K

Comments

Massive Mastering Sun, 05/22/2005 - 12:08

(Former Central Station user here)

Keep in mind that for the features the Central Station offers, $500 isn't spit. I'm a whisker less than "seriously" impressed with the build quality of the unit, but the sound quality (even the built-in DAC) is quite decent - Worlds better than some popular less expensive units, and anything but a "rip-off" for the money.

redrabbit Sun, 05/22/2005 - 12:49

This company sells high-end "volume" attenuators, and kits, etc.
(pricey)

http://www.dact.com/html/wiring_a_balanced_stereo_passi.html
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Or, I use one of these- about $125:
(but no HPhone outs)

http://www.smproaudio.com/MPATCH.htm
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Or, if you can pick up a used Rane SM 26b splitter.....one stereo input gives you 3 or 4 stereo outputs (I have found them for $35 to $100.)

=RR=

anonymous Sun, 05/22/2005 - 15:51

Massive Mastering wrote: (Former Central Station user here)

Keep in mind that for the features the Central Station offers, $500 isn't spit. I'm a whisker less than "seriously" impressed with the build quality of the unit, but the sound quality (even the built-in DAC) is quite decent - Worlds better than some popular less expensive units, and anything but a "rip-off" for the money.

John, did you go with the Avocet?

anonymous Sun, 05/22/2005 - 22:26

correction...a rip off for the features that i would use on it.... I'm salivating over one so i'm definetely not ripping on it. I'm just wondering if there are complex circuits involved with splitting a single stereo signal into 2 or 3. If it costs 500 to do that then so be it.... i really should take an electical engineering class.. thanks for the replys i'll check our the links...

K

anonymous Mon, 05/23/2005 - 19:43

Believe it or not, Electronics for Dummies will help almost anyone figure out the basics. I was trained in electronics in the military and I picked up this book to just brush up on some stuff that I hadn't dealt with in a few years and I was amazed at what a good job they did explaining the basic ins and outs of a VERY complicated subject.

Massive Mastering Mon, 05/23/2005 - 20:18

MistaG wrote: [quote=Massive Mastering](Former Central Station user here)

Keep in mind that for the features the Central Station offers, $500 isn't spit. I'm a whisker less than "seriously" impressed with the build quality of the unit, but the sound quality (even the built-in DAC) is quite decent - Worlds better than some popular less expensive units, and anything but a "rip-off" for the money.

John, did you go with the Avocet?

Yes I did. But I had a Central Station since - probably since the day they came out - I had one of those first 30 or whatever that had faulty pots and all... Obviously, traded that one in... :o

But for the cash, the CS has a nifty factor around 8.6

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