Well that is very, very disappointing...

I've got to stop letting shiny red things catch my eye.

I purchased it in red because it was the only color they had that was refurbished; I prefer silver. (Really, I do.) It saved me about $800 over new but turned out ot be a bad decision anyway...
I'm going to contact both the seller and SPL and point them to this review and ask for comment. This unit is either still broken or poorly designed. In any case it is not a keeper.
Thanks Amir for the very quick turn around. I wanted it to measure well so badly but alas it was not meant to be. I guess in this price range Benchmark and RME really are it.
Martin