Aiphone DA-1MD - Audio Handset Tenant Station for DA Series

The DA-1MD is the tenant station side of an Aiphone DA Series multi-tenant intercom. It sits inside the apartment or unit and answers calls from the entrance station using a handset, so the conversation is private rather than played out loud on a speaker. Talk is full-duplex, meaning both people can speak at once without pressing a talk button. Along with answering the door it has a door release button that unlocks from the unit, a service button for triggering an external device, and a call tone volume control with a mute indicator so a tenant can see when the ringer is silenced.

Two things are powered differently on the DA-1MD. The door release function is powered by the door station, so no separate release power run to the unit. The station itself is fed from a system power supply, and that run is limited: 180 feet on 22AWG, 510 feet on 18AWG from the power supply to the tenant station. On a multi-story building those numbers are what decide where the power supply closet goes.

Entrance station to power supply is 360 feet on 22AWG and 1,020 feet on 18AWG, measured cumulatively across the run, not per leg. That cumulative part catches people out on buildings with several entrances feeding one supply, since every entrance run counts against the same total. Stepping from 22AWG up to 18AWG is what buys the extra distance if a garden-style property or a long corridor puts you over.

Both runs are 2-conductor. Entrance station to tenant station takes 2-conductor overall shielded (Aiphone #822202) or 2-conductor low capacitance, PE insulated, solid, non-shielded (Aiphone #871802). Power supply to tenant station takes the non-shielded low-cap type, Aiphone #871802. Low capacitance matters on a full-duplex audio circuit, so ordinary bell wire or spare CAT cable is not a substitute here.

There is a door release button on the station itself, so the tenant releases the entrance door from inside the unit. Power for that release comes from the door station rather than from anything run to the apartment.

No. The DA-1MD is an audio-only handset station for the DA Series. There is no display on it, so pairing it with a video entry panel gets you audio only at best. If the spec calls for tenants to see who is at the door, the system needs a video tenant station, not this one.

A handset station like the DA-1MD keeps the conversation on the earpiece, so nobody else in the room or in the hallway hears who is at the door. That is the reason most multi-family and senior housing specs land on handsets. A hands-free open-voice station is easier for a tenant with limited mobility and needs no cradle, but it broadcasts the call into the room. If privacy at the unit is the driver, the handset version is the one to buy.

It controls an external device. On real installs that is typically wired to something the tenant needs to trigger from inside the unit alongside the door release. It is a second, separate output from the door release button, so you get two controlled functions at the station rather than one.

Call tone volume is adjustable at the station and there is a mute indicator, so a muted unit shows it. For a property manager that is the difference between a tenant who turned the ringer down and a complaint that the intercom is broken. Worth pointing out at turnover, since it is the most common false service call on handset stations.

It is a commercial-grade product, sold for multi-tenant intercom systems, which is the apartment building, condo, and mixed-use application rather than a single-family door chime.

One. The DA-1MD is a single model with no finish, handing, or size options to specify, so the part number is the whole order. Quantity is what varies, one station per unit served.