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For Sale or Trade: 24/192 balanced DAC, 2 amps and 5 preamps: PreSonus Central Station-Benchmark DAC1 alternative

post #1 of 6
3/5/13 at 10:01pm - last bumped: 1 day, 21 hours ago
Thread Starter 
$299 (USD)
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For Sale or Trade:
24/192 balanced DAC, 2 amps and 5 preamps: PreSonus Central Station-Benchmark DAC1 alternative

Will Ship To: ConUSA

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Price lowered to $299 shipped to your door within ConUSA. This offer is only for serious buyer who can paypal quickly.

This is a professional studio DAC/amp/pre that is similar to Benchmark DAC1 or Lavry DA10.  This is not your hyped-up consumer / "audiophool" gear.

New retail price is around $500-600 with a remote control. My unit is without remote control. I would like to get $299 back to my pocket. PayPal fee and ConUS shipping, which will add around $24 additionally, will be buyer's responsibility. No international shipping, unless you have lots of positive feedbacks and are paying extra shipping.

This unit has been compared to Benchmark DAC1 at Headfi and prefered by some Headfiers:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/153207/review-presonus-central-station-dac-preamp-headphone-amp

http://www.head-fi.org/t/201902/presonus-central-station-dac-head-amp-pre-amp-comprehensive-info

Full official description can be found here:
http://www.presonus.com/products/Central-Station-PLUS

Briefly, the unit has:
1) a 24/192 DAC with coaxial and optical inputs and 115 dBu dynamic range;

2) two independent headphone amplifiers, each having its independent volume control. 
Both are transparent and neutral without being bright/harsh. They produce no hiss with my custom BA IEMs (Westone ES3Xs) and are powerful enough to drive my LCD-2s and Beyer DT880/600 ohms.

3) 5 state-of-the-art passive preamps (3 "speaker", 1 "main" and 1 "cue"). I have tested its preamp function with FristWatt F2 amp and LCD-2s. It is noise-free and has very good volume control.

4) passive audio path: no op amps or ICs.

5) more balanced/unbalance inputs/outputs than most audiophile may need

6) a LED peak meter

7) microphone talk-back control

Reason for selling is because I am going all portable (with baby/family/work/exams, no time to sit down and use stationary gear). This is actually my last piece of stationary gear, because I like it the best (for its value and features). Before it, I have sold a FisrtWatt F2 amp, an AMB Gamma2 DAC and a AMB Beta22 amp.

This unit is working 100% but has quite some cosmetic scratches. I will upload photos in a few days.

I am only willing to consider the following trades (plus or minus PayPal cash):
1) a 128GB SDXC card in fat32 format (not stock);
2) a pair of VSonic VC1000s

Please buy with confidence: I am an established Headfier with 71 / 100% positive feedback.

My new feedback can be found here
http://www.head-fi.org/classifieds/feedback/index/user_id/126562
Old feedback here:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/478424/zzffnn

Thank you for your interest.
Edited by zzffnn - 5/18/13 at 6:31am
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post #2 of 6
3/5/13 at 10:03pm
Thread Starter 
Trades that were not mentioned will not be accepted. Sorry.

Due to the extra length of this unit, it would not fit an USPS Large flat rate box. Shipping may be more than $15--if it is not too much more, I will cover it myself. I would need to find a suitable shipping box or looking into Fedex or UPS.
Edited by zzffnn - 3/9/13 at 2:12pm
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post #3 of 6
3/12/13 at 2:59pm
Thread Starter 
Due to a PM request, I will hold this item for a potential buyer till 1PM central US time on this Friday / March 15. I still welcome PM offers but will not sell it until that time.

Edit:
The hold has expired and the above potential buyer has not paid. So this unit is now available for anyone in ConUSA to purchase.

The unit has been cleaned, inspected and professionally packed by FEDEX. Shipping fee will be around $29-$34, of which I will
cover anything over $15 (you pay $15, I pay all the rest). I will try to ship on the same day of the payment, if not I will ship the next day.

So the total amount to be paypal'ed is $299 + $9 (paypal fee) + $15 = $323.

I would also like to comment on how much I like the volume adjustment of this unit. All volume pots have very smooth steps. You would feel the quality once you touch the volume pots. I actually bought this unit for its passive pre-amp function alone. As a preamp, it offered me noise-free and precise volume control and worked a lot better than the Audio-GD NGB-11 I had.

I did a lot of research before buying this unit. I found that ONE half-decent passive preamp costs $100. This pro studio unit offers 5 excellent preamps, plus 24/192 coaxial/optical DAC and two headphones amps!

I also like the blue/dark purple color of the volume pots.
Edited by zzffnn - 3/15/13 at 5:11pm
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post #4 of 6
3/20/13 at 8:52pm
Thread Starter 
Since I was asked in PM, I will write down a concise answer herein as well:

This unit can also output unbalanced RCA or TS signal. 2-3 pairs of Adapters are included in this sale for free.

Basically, you can use TS plugs to obtain unbalanced input/outputs from balanced TRS connectors. One of those 2 Headfi threads about PreSonus Central Station also teaches this connection method. And here is a wiki teaching the same (and more):

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_connector_(audio)

The following is the relevant part of the wiki:

Quote

When a phone connector is used to make a balanced connection, the two active conductors are both used for a monaural signal. The ring, used for the right channel in stereo systems, is used instead for the inverting input. This is a common use in small audio mixing desks, where space is a premium and they offer a more compact alternative to XLR connectors. Another advantage offered by TRS phone connectors used for balanced microphone inputs is that a standard unbalanced signal lead using a TS phone jack can simply be plugged into such an input. The ring (right channel) contact then makes contact with the plug body, correctly grounding the inverting input.

Unquote

Oh, and yes, this PreSonus unit is a perfect match for your powered/active speakers/studio monitors (e.g., Audioengine, M-Audio, KRK, Makie, ect).
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post #5 of 6
3/22/13 at 6:09pm
Thread Starter 
If you want to use this unit with balanced XLR connections, adapters are readily available as well:
http://www.google.com/shopping/product/12340570432232492074?q=trs%20to%20xlr%20adapter&hl=en&biw=480&bih=268&sa=X&ei=l_1MUa_pN8SGrAHPp4CYAw&ved=0CHkQ8wIwAjgU#hsec:overview
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post #6 of 6
4/25/13 at 9:25am
Thread Starter 

Price lowered to $299 shipped to your door within ConUSA. This offer is only for serious buyer who can paypal quickly. 

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