I talked to Presonus at the AES. In regards to the Central Station, they said about 150 were defective on the first patch. They made improvements to the units afterwards however many still have some of the old units in stock which is why there have been the returns on the old ones. They were very friendly and helpful with all my questions. I was told the Central Station cost more than they thought but they choose to keep the price at $499 even though they would not make hardly a profit on them. He explained how the D/A converter on the Central Station was on par with some higher end converters as well. Not the Lavery mind you, but some more mid line converters that would be impressive to have in our studios. I tried the MXL mic's which are good for their price.