Presonus Central Station & Remote?

[zebra50]

Hi!

Does anyone have any experience with the Presonus Central Station & Remote?

I have a problem with the relative output of the two talkback microphones. The mic on the remote control unit is about 20 dB(!) quieter than the one on the base unit.

I've had two units now and they both do the same. I have spoken to the UK importers, they say it shouldn't do this, but have yet to test my first returned unit.

Does anyone has one? and if so, can you please check and see if you have the same issue?

Thanks!

 

[zayance]

I'll check this afternoon, i have some stuff to finish and i'll report, if you don't have any answer from that time  

 

[zayance]

Funny the same on mine, i didn't recognised it because both mic levels base/remote were at unity and the base unit is not that far from the remote, so was not that obvious, but now testing each one made it clear. Yep weird but can't bother me in my situation, but i'd love to know what is it about...

PS: i had a great price with the remote, now i know why  , anyway let me know what's up with your returned unit.

 

[AudioGimmer]

Can't help with your particular problem, but I can say that in my experience the Central Station is very unreliable.
I should know, I had three.

Two went up in smoke, literally, and one went intermittent. It's a great shame, it's a great product on paper at a good price, but Presonus quality control must be terrible.
I had to get rid of them in the end. Too much grief.

Good luck, I hope you track down the problem.

AG

 

[0dbfs]

I walked into the studio the other day to find the meters pegged on my Central Station in some sort of failure mode. I also have the remote unit. This is not cool but The device has worked well for a handful of years with no issues to speak of.

I can't test the TB level at the moment because the device is disassembled on my bench but I typically used the remote TB mic so I have not compared the level differences yet.

I am hoping that the meter-pegged issue is just a meter issue an not affecting the I/O but I have not yet measured outputs yet. Once I saw the fault I quickly disconnected everything. Luckily I turn off my speakers when not in use to protect them against such eventualities.

Does anyone have experience with the internals of these devices?

Best,
jonathan

 

[Denyle Guitars]

I had a smoker too. Had a remote as well and never used it. In the end, I got a Benchmark DAC-1 and DIY'd a passive attenuator & input/output router, which works perfect for me.

I think the remote just mirrors the front panel in every way, it's basically all passive. The only things I can think of are maybe the cable is loading down the mic or the opening in the remote is muting the capsule.

 

[zayance]

The only things I can think of are maybe the cable is loading down the mic

That's what i'm thinking too, but as Zebra told me on PM, i'm sure Presonus didn't even bother to check that i'm sure, anyway it's a good point and good observation, for me The central station is doing well, so far so good...

 

[kenrinc]

I'd check mine but it's currently at Presonus being fixed ....  :  Meters just stopped working.  Normally I'd just say F*** it but I actually use the meters sometimes for certain things.  I have friends who bought 2 units, knowing that they are not well built. They wanted "spares" on hand in-case one went down.  The damn things are really nicely designed but poorly executed. I've not owned other Presonus gear but I'd guess it's the same way. There is no QA.  It's sad really, because the unit doesn't really have any other equals for the price. The other options are not that good.  It sounds good and doesn't mess with the audio path like other stuff. 

Ken-

 

[zebra50]

Thanks guys!

The damn things are really nicely designed but poorly executed.

That's the impression I'm getting. It's a real shame - the functionality is ideal for our little studio but I think it'll have to go back. I think the next thing up is the Audient unit, but that's a lot more £$€.

The cable could be loading down the mic, but 20dB seems excessive!

 

[phishman13]

My experience from Presonus has been great feature set, horrible execution.  I have the firestudio with monitor remote, and it has been nothing but trouble.  First of all, the monitor controller main volume knob will attenuate volume until about 10% from the bottom, and then the volume just mutes!  not a smooth fade to silence, attenuation, then mute on the last little bit.  presonus said that shouldn't do that, sent me a new one, same shit.  It keeps resetting the main unit to be in different modes b/c of its unreliability and every now and again will blast some horrific noise through the 2 headphone amps on it, really pissing off my musicians.  Their D/A's are noisy as shit and allow interference from my imacs screen to leak into the signal path, plugging a midi cable to the input causes ground hum on all outputs, drivers never never never work reliably.  i could go on.  i vented to a presonus tech in an email one day and he didn't really have much to say in response, not even sorry for your experience. 

Moral of the story:  Choose another brand!  Their cheap stuff is great for people who don't need serious hardware, but if you need quality and reliability, Choose another brand!

 

[zayance]

serious hardware

Don't go with cheap stuff for sure  , but central station is not as good as an Avocet no doubt, but it's ok for some studio projects, and beside that mic problem i have an ACP88 for years, used it in lots of situations, a little less now but so far so good, no problem at all, but in terms of sound card i wouldn't go near presonus, not even near their new stuff, as you said great features horrible execution, i have friends of mine that didn't want to hear my toughts on their sound cards, i was basing my toughts on the fact that Presonus was not a brand dedicated to sound cards and AD/DA converters, so there should be some surprises there, i mean i won't go to a butcher if i need my hoven to get fixed,  and happens they got stuck in very bad stability, bad Asio driver etc... etc.... horrible from what they said, and now they sold it to some more serious things, that i've proposed them first, but spended twice, i remember an English proverb i think that was saying, "i don't have enough money to buy cheap things", so if you need serious don't even go on Presonus side, build some DIY stuff   ;D

 

[guy_4]

Hello All,

It is such an old post, I know...

So I can confirm that ten years later Presonus has not corrected what looks like a design bug that affects the Remote Control of their Central Station : the Talkback Mic is not working ! 
Only the Mic of the main unit is active when pressing the Talkback Button on the Remote.
SHAME ON PRESONUS ! 

I opened the Remote Control but it is all SMC in , and without schematics I could check nothing.
I just measured the voltage at the electret capsule and there is no presence of a polarisation voltage... ?

Also there is not enough gain on the preamp of the talkback mic on the main unit, and the level is too low to be heard correctly over the music program.

This unit is powered by an external 18VDC, and an internal SMPS generates the +/-15V and 5V, but it also generates a disturbing high frequency noise and vibration...  
I had to enclose the coil in silicone resin to cancel the parasitic noise.

Best,
Guy