Aguilar DB 680 Preamp

[steve-soar]

Tonight I've been playing around with my gear. I seem to always use my Ampeg SVPII, into my QSC PLX 3102, which is great. But tonight I swapped back to my Aguilar pre and the difference has stunned me.
The sound seemed to be three dimensional, air, heft and projection.

This was going into a Tech Soundsystems 6x10".

I would urge anyone with a chance of buying the DB680 to do so.

[Pentode]

Absolutely, IMO there's no finer preamp.

[krispn]

Been lucky enough to get my hands on one recently. I find myself running it into my wee fender combo at home, via a wee mixer for silent practice and at every possible gig/rehearsal I can Looking forward to trying it out with a mic as a recording pre for acoustic and vox soon too...well DB from Aguilar did describe it as a Neve for bass right?

Edited May 3, 2016 by krispn

[GremlinAndy]

Nice! Glad to hear of your re-discovery Steve!

I think I need to re-discover mine too.

Edited May 1, 2016 by GremlinAndy

[Lee-Man]

Funnily enough I've just rediscovered mine, its a lovely bit of kit.

[doctorbass]

[quote name='GremlinAndy' timestamp='1462127116' post='3040492']
Nice! Glad to hear of your re-discovery Steve!

I think I need to re-discover mine too.
[/quote]

Think I need to re-buy mine......

[Pentode]

S'funny to see all the Aggie DB680 names appearing together again

[Sjonnie]

From all the preamps I've had over the years only the Aguilar DB680 and Aguilar DB659 are the ones I kept. I have been using the DB659 with a QSC power amp for almost 10 years and I have never even considered another amp.

Recently I used my DB 680 for rehearsals and plugged it directly in the PA, that is the only amp so far that made me reconsider my DB659.

[krispn]

Just thinking about this the DB 680 is what 21yrs old? I know mine looks like it just rolled out of the showroom in NYC!

[Mark Dixon]

I see there is one for sale at Bass Direct, for £850..

[Mark Dixon]

[quote name='krispn' timestamp='1463062612' post='3048219']
Just thinking about this the DB 680 is what 21yrs old? I know mine looks like it just rolled out of the showroom in NYC!
[/quote]
And I'm not jealous, bring it over (I live in Edinburgh) and we can compare it with my Jules Monique and Heritage Audio Channel Strip..

[krispn]

I'd love to hear a good 1073 pre.....and a Monique!!

Looks like the one on BD is a very early serial number. I believe the very early ones had 4 valves rather than 5!

Edited May 17, 2016 by krispn

[alzamatt]

Ever tried the difference between thunderfunk and the db680 ?thx

[kevin_lindsay]

The DB680 is a fantastic preamp. It seems such a shame that I haven't been using mime recently (I've been using my lightweight rig on gigs since my back got tweaked).

I think I'll have mine up for sale here soon?

[URL=http://s7.photobucket.com/user/kevin_lindsay/media/35b87b57_1.jpg.html][IMG]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/kevin_lindsay/35b87b57_1.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[GremlinAndy]

Alzamatt:
I own a DB680 and a Thunderfunk. 2 Thunderfunks actually, both the 550 and 750.
The 680 is the finest pre bar none (in my experience). Close second is the Warwick Hellborg pre.
I actually use the TF800 (the better sounding of the TFs) live. They sound great and are a little more practical as a combo pre/power.

Edited December 11, 2016 by GremlinAndy