Audio Precision Portable One Price

Title says it all. What would you expect to pay for an analog only Portable One in good condition?

Do ya wanna go halvies on one and fight over it like divorced parents?  I have been looking for an AP axe as well and just cannot expense the cost, especially given how technology progresses!
Mike

I want to say $1800 - $2500?

I remember looking into this a while back.  I'm sure the go above $3K on ebay.

Mike

Like this guy?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170431291394

Mike

Echo North said:

Like this guy?

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Yep, that's the one. So it seems like a relatively fair price? I haven't seen any come up for auction in the past month or so. Less the 10 days I was internetless. I'm not in a hurry to get one but I can afford that and if it's a fair price I'll grab it. Hopefully it will keep working for a while.

Does anyone know if there is 3rd party support for them? I think AP discontinued support for them. A used sys 2 is out of my price range. I don't deserve something that nice anyway.

I remember thinking anything 2K or under was a great price.  If you're looking for one and see one for under 2K I would jump on it.

$2,500 seems fair from the 5 or so I have seen for sale.  You don't see a lot of them for sale for good reason!  I borrowed one from a local studio once and fell in love with it.  I ended up getting an HP8903 for about $800 instead.

Mike

Here's another price source from an instrument sales site:
http://www.labx.com/v2/spiderdealer2/vistaSearchDetails.cfm?LVid=6980315

Seems about right.  These places usually charge about 2X what they are worth.  Of course for the price it comes calibrated and usually with some basic warranty.

Not sure about 3rd part support.

Good luck!

Thanks,

Mike

AP discontinued support for System One, which hasn't been produced for years. I got a newsletter which stated very clearly that after certain time frame support will be discontinued and they don't have all the parts anymore. _Portable One_ will have support for years to come, it is much more recent device.

Calibration service is expensive, so if you are buying one, simply ask if it passes "self test". That does not guarantee that it passes factory specks, but is good enough for DIY. Simple.

-Jonte

Thanks all, I pulled the trigger. I think the trick will be not to get too hung up on all the stuff it will show me.

Mike, you can come play with it whenever you want.

Gold said:

Thanks all, I pulled the trigger. I think the trick will be not to get too hung up on all the stuff it will show me.

Mike, you can come play with it whenever you want.

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You lucky bastard!

One of my closest friends lives in Brooklyn, I believe you mastered a record he produced (Ancient Sky). Next time I'm in town I'd love to stop by and check out your setup.

Mike

Gold said:

I think the trick will be not to get too hung up on all the stuff it will show me.

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Hi Paul,

It is a great box, and you can open up the top and bottom limits of the frequency sweep when doing THD+N and Amplitude which can often show up any demons in your gear, especially after you've built something, or when you're trying to match up channels.

You'll love it...

Mark

I have just ended a long saga. I bought that AP on ebay. The post office lost it! Vanished! It took over a month to sort it all out but I did get my money back. While this was going on two pieces of test equipment I got from the bay decided to up and die. A nice HP function generator and an HP spectrum analyzer. I think the spectrum analyzer won't be too difficult to fix but I think the function generator is gone.

I don't want to spend my time fixing test equipment. I'm not that good and I want to trust the test equipment. So I bit the bullet and bought a new analog Portable One with a six year warranty. It came today. Yippee. I'm living the dream. Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

Echo,

I missed that post first time around. Is your friend Brian? He's a talented dude. You are welcome to stop by anytime.

Gold said:

I don't want to spend my time fixing test equipment. I'm not that good and I want to trust the test equipment. So I bit the bullet and bought a new analog Portable One with a six year warranty. It came today. Yippee. I'm living the dream. Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

Echo,

I missed that post first time around. Is your friend Brian? He's a talented dude. You are welcome to stop by anytime.

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Nice!  That is an awesome machine.

Brian is a friend of mine, but I was referring to Mike K. who recorded Brian's bands last record.  Mike also now plays bass in that band.  He was telling me all about your setup.  I'll definitely stop by next time I'm in New York.

Mike

Oh, okay. They were in a couple of weeks ago again. I don't think Brian is playing with them anymore. I like their stuff. The new one sounded good. Let's get a beer next time you're here.

Gold said:

Oh, okay. They were in a couple of weeks ago again. I don't think Brian is playing with them anymore. I like their stuff. The new one sounded good. Let's get a beer next time you're here.

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Brian is definitely still in the band.  Are we talking about different people?

http://www.myspace.com/ancientskyband

I believe you mastered their self titled EP.

I'll be in touch when I make it town again!

Mike

I was thinking of Golden Bones. I get confused because Brian is in a few bands. They were just in and he isn't playing with them anymore.

Gold said:

I was thinking of Golden Bones. I get confused because Brian is in a few bands. They were just in and he isn't playing with them anymore.

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Right!  I forgot that when I last visited Brian was in about 6 bands!