A16Ultras $500 ea? SCOPE Pro booster card $700?

blazesboylan · Post by **blazesboylan** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 11:14 am

Hi all.

I'm thinking of selling a couple of under-used A16 Ultra's (the old teal ones with TRS connectors) and a SCOPE Pro card.

$500 USD / CAD for each A16 Ultra, and $700 USD / CAD for the SRB / Plus? Let me know what pricing would be reasonable.

The Pro card has a "Plus" AES/EBU daughterboard but the last time I tried it the Z-Links were on the fritz. The 2 x ADAT connectors are what I used (they work better with external word clocks anyway), and the other connectors (MIDI analog AES) worked fine. I'll test thoroughly before selling. It has no plugs registered IIRC; best used as a secondary card / booster.

Any advice on the prices? (Or offers?)

Thanks all. Hope everyone's been well! I've missed the PlanetZ community.

- Johann
Victoria, B.C., Canada

blazesboylan · Post by **blazesboylan** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 1:54 pm

Bump for tentative prices:

- $500 each A16 Ultra
- $700 for the SCOPE SRB/Plus

USD or CAD, PayPal's fine, etc.

Suggestions / offers / etc welcome.

Johann

Neutron · Post by **Neutron** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 2:23 pm

is that a 15(14) dsp SRB? and if so do you still have it?

and does it have some stdm cables?

ScofieldKid · Post by **ScofieldKid** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 4:48 pm

Looks like an SRB goes for about $1100 street (US).

So yeah, $700 looks like a good price for that.

Neutron · Post by **Neutron** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 5:24 pm

i pmailed you. i would like your SRB.

blazesboylan · Post by **blazesboylan** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 6:50 pm

Hi all.

Thanks for the PMs + your bump Neutron! (Edit: and ScofieldKid! Cheers.

)

It seems my brain has conflated the 2 types of daughterboards I have: one Plus (AES, 2 ADATs, 1 ZLink) and one ZLink (2 ZLinks, 1 ADAT, 1 S/PDIF). Sorry! I'm going to have to wait til tomorrow (Saturday) to pull the machine out of the rack, figure out which daughterboards' ZLink(s) are on the fritz, and report back here. My apologies for the confusion.

Nevertheless, the SRB itself is of the 14/15 DSP variety, purchased from Shawn at Infinite Vortex in 2002 or 2003. I do have at least one spare S/TDM cable that I can throw in; I'll check tomorrow to see if there is more than one.

(I believe I have 3 S/TDM cables altogether, because when I had 3 14 DSP boards working together, Ali at CreamWare told me to max out at 3 S/TDM cables -- more than that apparently causes some instabilities. I'll need to keep one for my Luna board.)

The SRB and daughterboard are of the "Pulsar II" generation. (I'm not even sure if the old Pular I's ever had 14/15 DSP versions??)

I apologize too for not being able to get back to y'all tonight individually, but I have a very Canuck event to attend... Hockey of course.

I'll get back to everyone in chronological order via PM tomorrow. Thanks for everyone's patience.

Oh and shipping anywhere is no problem, though beware that post at this time of the year is dreadfully slow.

Cheers & be back soon,

Johann

Neutron · Post by **Neutron** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 6:55 pm

thats fine, to tell you the truth the main thing i want is the extra 2 midi I / O adats would be nice but i have 16 chan and its probably enough.

thats interesting about the STDM cables. the guy who blew out his 3 cards had 5 cables between 3 cards.

Post by **garyb** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 7:04 pm

1,2,3,4 or 5 could work best depending on what use you put the cards to. S4L's computers all have 5. mine only has 1 because i have a p1 and a p1 srb along with my power pulsar....

Neutron · Post by **Neutron** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 7:07 pm

if you had a pulsar2 which has 2 connectors, and 2 14dsp cards
would it be better to add additional connectors between the big cards?

i would think it would be best to do that and make one of the big cards card 0
but things dont always follow "what you might think, especially with these cards

and does it matter what card the IO is on?

and can you move the IO daughter card from a pulsar 2 onto a SRB? or does it have the pins removed..

Post by **garyb** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 7:25 pm

yes, you can move the daughterboard from one card to the other. yes, it would be a good idea for the big cards to be the first cards and the p2 last, although it shouldn't matter much whether the i/o is on the p2 or not as long as the first 15dsp card has i/o.

this system should have 1 or 2 s/tdm cables, no more.

Neutron · Post by **Neutron** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 8:07 pm

thank you. what if i take out the pulsar2. add more STDM or still use 2?

most of the plugins i have are duplicated between a 14 DSP card im getting and
the pulsar

i am thinking of using it alone in a seperate machine with a self designed active speaker crossover + measurement system for building ..speakers and crossovers that would go with them.

and also for playing music. because there is a certain solidity i can not explain about the sound from these cards.

Post by **garyb** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 9:32 pm

if you take out the p2, it's your choice...

pkole · Post by **pkole** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 2:34 am

check your pms.

blazesboylan · Post by **blazesboylan** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 1:11 pm

Thanks for the info Gary, it always amazes me how you cram all this knowledge into your noggin! Are you on Sonic Core's payroll yet?

OK so I have to run out the door again, I will still PM everyone (promise!) tonight.

Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure the SRB/whatever you want to call it is sold.

So it is a Z-Link plate (2 Z-Links, 1 ADAT, MIDI, S/PDIF, analog). I've been testing the Z-Links thoroughly for the past hour, and both are working perfectly. I don't know what I did the last time I hooked up the Z-Links, but it seems likely to be user error...?!? I am confident at this point that the Z-Links will not give anyone any problems.

My apologies for the delay getting back to everyone, I'll be in touch tonight.

Thanks,

Johann

Post by **garyb** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 2:30 pm

no, not yet...

dawman · Post by **dawman** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 8:10 pm

I am all cabled up w/ 5 STDM's. A total of 15 connections.

Since I did this, and added the infamous GaryB " Homegrown Gold Connector " STDM's, I rarely have long optimisation waits.

Heavy polyphony usually causes the pop up optimisation window. But once I get the project full, I make sure that Prowave's hungriest preset w/ the insert rack packed is in the start up project. It allows me to have the maximium load out of the gate, as we say here. That particular preset isn't even used during the gig, but whoops the DSP cards into shape by shocking them right away. All presets after that have a max of 2 effects and 8 voices as opposed to 4 FX and 10 voices.

I had an optimisation window pop up one night while playing. I was forced to play my analog synth the rest of the song until I had time to reset the problem.

A testament to the stability of Scope. That was the only time I sweated a gig w/ SFP in 3 years of live performance. Always helps to have a piece of hardware handy too.

Neutron · Post by **Neutron** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 9:06 pm

pkole wrote:check your pms.

dont even think about it

thats mine !!!

blazesboylan · Post by **blazesboylan** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 11:08 pm

OK I think I've caught up with my PM's now. Sorry for the wait everyone! The SRB/Z-Link card has officially sold.

Here are some pix of the A16 Ultra's. Does anyone know if the new black ones are just cosmetically different? Or does Sonic Core use more modern A-D/D-A converters in the new units? In any case these are the 24 bit/96 kHz capable units.

For anyone in Europe, keep in mind that the PSU's I have are 110V / 60Hz North American wall warts. Ali has a thread somewhere here in the purchasing forum, dunno if he has Euro A16U power supplies?

Oh and my apologies for my lack of photography skills. I tried in vain to get pictures that showed the lights on, but you can't see 'em. They are on!

Otherwise the units are both in excellent cosmetic condition, and work perfectly.

I also have a 56 channel TRS-to-stubs snake that I can sell to anyone who's interested, or solder up some ends to the stubs side. Not quite enough connectors for two A16U's (64), but pretty close. It's a 10' Horizon snake with Switchcraft 297 TRS connectors, I've used its sister (same make + model) wired up to the A16's and a patchbay for 4 years, and she has served me well. (I'm keeping the one attached to my patchbay.

)

Anyway enough blather from me. On with the pictures.

(The bottom 2 units in this pic)

The middle one comes out of the rack:

Thanks,

Johann
Victoria, B.C., Canadia

Post by **garyb** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 11:40 pm

afaik, these are the same as the new ones. i don't think that ad/das in general have really improved in a bit, a good design is a good design....

dawman · Post by **dawman** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 9:42 am

Thanks 4 The Pictures.

I see you pamper your gear like little children. Excellent.

Every little screw with perfectly positioned washers. This helps during a re sale. I doubt these units even have a rack rash as the spacing between them demonstrates.

I am happy to see such care given to such quality equipment.