Purchase Advice

Peter Batah

Soundaholic
Joined
Feb 9, 2017
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Age
67
From
Montreal, Canada
Website
www.cafejoya.com
Gear owned
DM4800 / MU1000
Would it be wise to consider purchasing a second DM-3200 if the unit in question was in near perfect condition. It comes equipped with the IF-FW/DM MKII Fire Wire card and the 2Seemy VGA expansion card.

The seller is in somewhat of a financial bind and is willing to part with the unit for a very reasonable price. Do I really need a second unit, no! I was thinking more along the lines of spare parts seeing as they seem to be harder to come by.

Or, have I completely lost my mind?

Your input would be greatly appreciated as always. Thank you. Peter
 
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To be honest, I am looking at a second unit on Ebay, where a company is selling one for 1100 euros in mint condition and with warranty. Maybe I would hold one to my first one for spare parts, which will obviously become harder to come by as the consoles are getting more outdated.
In your case it would depend on the price, me thinks. Is 'reasonable' enough to justify setting it apart as a donor machine? :-)
 
It's not crazy. Many of us have done this. IMO, having 2 DM's is more of a luxurious insurance policy and a way to dabble with cascading. My cascade implementation was driven more by figuring out how to do it, documenting the process (since Tascam failed to do so) and to make use of the spare. Personally speaking, I don't need 2 DM's at once as its overkill for my needs (although it has allowed me to do some clever workarounds). My feeling now is when both DM's die, I will just move onto another platform and call it a day. There's another thread in the forum that discusses other viable solutions but unfortunately it got sidetracked by the DM fanboy mentality. Hey I love my DM as much as the next guy but the reality is there's no successor and they will eventually break. In saying that, there's no harm in discussing other supported solutions and a contingency plan which can include purchasing a 2nd DM.
 
On the other hand, perhaps software (drivers, OS support) will become a problem even before we run out of spare parts. So I'm with @cmaffia here, even though I'm totally new in the world of the 4800, we better be prepared to switch so something else entirely when the time comes.
 
In regards to drivers, fortunately us Windows 7 & 10 users have been blessed with backward compatibility with drivers that were written for XP. Windows 10 has plenty of life. No harm in freezing your environment either if things stopped working beyond.. If I can't create anything decent with what technology I am using today, then no update is going to help me in the future :)
 
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Thank you all for chiming in. As always I greatly value your input. Peter
 
IMO, someone else is owning my future spare board, they just don't know it yet ;-) Let's say I buy one for spares now for a certain price, it will be cheaper to buy one, say, in 3 years. It may be harder to find, but it's also possible something new will be on the market. (Note to self: check out the new Allen & Heath stuff from NAMM). Suppose that new desk is totally it - I'd have to get rid of not one, but two DMs... I'm not a hoarder, and I'll cross the bridge when I come to it.
 
@Arjan P Thank you. I suppose what really had my shorts in a knot was the obscene price that I would be paying. But then I considered what other folks like yourself and @cmaffia were saying. Do I really need a second DM? Realistically, it would be sitting in its road case until my first DM went south. That is ridiculous. If and when that happens, I will consider looking at other solutions. Temptation is a very dangerous thing. And, I don't really have the time to start parting the DM out. I am not in the used parts business. Have a great day / evening. Thanks for listening / reading my long-winded response. Peter
 
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Following this thread has changed my mind as well. I will hold off from buying that DM on ebay. Thanks guys. :-)
 
Keep in mind when I purchased my 2nd unit it was before either of the DM models were discontinued and we assumed a successor was on the horizon in 3-4 years. @Arjan is correct in that now I have the arduous task of getting rid of 2 DM3200's. Little known fact was I had THREE at one point for a short period time. WTF was I thinking :-)
 
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