REPRINTED FROM OCTOBER, 2003 WWW.PROAUDIOREVIEW.COM
Copyright 2003 IMAS Publishing (USA), Inc. Reprinted with permission.
The Industry’s Equipment Authority
BY
WAYNE BECKER
T
OA has always had a good reputation
for making cost-effective, reliable and
innovative audio products for the
sound contracting market. Their foray
into the digital realm goes back longer than
most us acknowledge, developing some of the
first DSPs for contracting and live perfor-
mance. One of the latest is the DP-0206, a
two-in by six-out digital signal processor with
an optional upgrade path to 12 channels of I/O
(however the unit I tested did not have the
optional cards installed). Like many of the
DSP boxes on the market today, the DP-0206
is a software-controlled and configured piece
of hardware using a Windows-based graphic
user interface (GUI), via the DACSys 2000
version 2.0 software, to program and manipu-
late the processing control of parameters.
FEATURES
In addition to accessing and controlling
the unit from a PC application, the unit has
sixteen internal memories to store presets
that can be recalled without connecting the
PC. A locking scheme protects the unit
against tampering. Up to 30 units can be
daisy-chained and controlled via the RS485
port along with an optional remote control
card that provides external control of mem-
ory recall and output volume and muting.
The unit comes housed in a 2RU rack-
mount-ready enclosure with controls on the
front panel and interface connections in the
rear. The front panel contains input and out-
put level and status LEDs, a memory/unit
ID number display, memory/unit ID number
selector keys, a memory recall key, a master
indicator ID and a power indicator LED.
The security panels, accessed by removing a
Philips-head screw, hides access to the
RS232 connection and the main power fuse,
a reset button and a system lock switch
which disables specific front panel accesses
functions. The rear panel provides connec-
tivity for the power cord, the control and
optional I/O ports, RS485 I/O connections
and the input and output connections; all on
Phoenix type connectors.
Up to 30 units can be arranged in a serial
network, providing centralized control of a
large system or multiple rooms with sys-
tems. Addressing of the units is straightfor-
ward and explained in detail in the manual.
The front panel preset display doubles as a
indicator for unit address and status.
Unlike some of the other DSP products
on the market today, TOA takes a “fixed”
approach to determining the DSP process-
ing you will have available. The fixed pro-
cessors can be bypassed if not required in a
certain stage. I like this, because even
though we like to think we have everything
figured out, it’s always nice to be able to go
back in at moments notice to tweak a certain
part of the system we didn’t think we’d have
to. The processing chain is straightforward;
each input goes through an A/D converter, a
gain stage, a compressor and a 12-band fil-
ter section before it gets to the mixer matrix.
From there the outputs go through a second
12-band filter section, a compressor, a
delay, the D/A converter and then output
attenuators. Each filter can be individually
configured as parametric, high/low pass,
high/low shelving, all-pass, notch or CD
horn EQ.
IN USE
First off, there was no contact informa-
tion in either the hardware or software man-
uals. So make sure your tech has the phone
TOA DP-0206
Digital Processor
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