Fair price for a used Apogee Mini Dac?

[Eric5676]

I bought it last year May 27 from Sweetwater. Obviously it's well over a year old now so that means its past manufacterer's warranty. It's the model that has neither USB nor firewire on it but the slot is there for a person to add the USB slot if they want it.

The unit has always been perfect for me. I would call it mint condition outright were it not for slightly crude looking little hole in the back with the tape over it where the USB should go. Another quibble of mine: The optical audio input is very loose and finicky.

You have to fiddle with the optical cable to get it to situate just right. The cable will properly secure but you need to be a little extra mindful with the optical audio input on this device. I'm not sure if this is a defect or not but I lived with it because the cable always ends up situating properly.

I do not have the original box the Dac came in but this would come packaged like Fort Knox in a good box. It will come with everything that came with it: Instruction, AES breakout cable, and power supply.

My best guess is $400-$500 at best. What do you all think?

[Salt Peanuts]

Have you contacted Apogee about the optical input? I realize that it's out of warranty, but it probably won't hurt to ask them. This, of course, assumes you're in the US (i.e., shipping to Apogee wouldn't be expensive).

As for the tape covering the hole, it's that way for any MiniDAC w/o USB so I wouldn't worry about it.

I did a casual browsing and I'd think you could probably get up to $550.

[Eric5676]

Have you contacted Apogee about the optical input? I realize that it's out of warranty, but it probably won't hurt to ask them. This, of course, assumes you're in the US (i.e., shipping to Apogee wouldn't be expensive).

I'm embarassed to say this but I think I can see what happened. The little piece of plastic that is usually on/over every optical opening on most electronics fell off or out somehow. I found it on the ground behind the stand where the Apogee has been residing. I never really noticed this until the other day when I started to casually explore all of this.

My fingers are a little large to try this but it looks like I could get that back on there.

It really doesn't affect how the DAC works though. You can plug the optical cable in there correctly but it just requires a little extra awareness than normal.

That attached picture should show you what I'm talking about.

That could be my fault for all I know or it was always loose and it fell off easily and I never took notice of it. It doesn't seem to affect function at all for that little piece of plastic to not be on there.

As for the tape covering the hole, it's that way for any MiniDAC w/o USB so I wouldn't worry about it.

I did a casual browsing and I'd think you could probably get up to $550.

Not bad.

[Salt Peanuts]

I think I know exactly what you're talking about - it's a little gray plastic tab, right? The piece is supposed to get pushed in when you plug in the cable, then help keep in the cable. I had a problem with the same plastic tab when I used to own a MiniDAC, though in my case, it was actually broken so I had Apogee fix it for me.

[Eric5676]

I think I know exactly what you're talking about - it's a little gray plastic tab, right? The piece is supposed to get pushed in when you plug in the cable, then help keep in the cable. I had a problem with the same plastic tab when I used to own a MiniDAC, though in my case, it was actually broken so I had Apogee fix it for me.

That's it. See the attached picture in previous post. I'm not going to waste anyone's time trying to get that fixed since it doesn't affect the unit's functioning at all.

I'm probably making a move for the 840c, incidentally.