Danuman Posted March 12, 2017 Posted March 12, 2017 Hi all, Thought I'd pick BC's collective brain for some info on the DBS 7200. My friend has the full stack, which is his pride and joy (rightfully so; it sounds as good as it is heavy - well, it did at any rate) but he's been playing it for 25 years, without having any work done on it even once (there's a recommendation!). Lately, though, he seems unhappy with it and I agree it sounds a bit lacklustre. No punch, and no zing. I suppose messing around with some preamp valves might be easy enough, but perhaps drifting components might warrant a more thorough checkup... Any suggestions? Anybody know what kind of power stage is in these amps? Quote
Count Bassy Posted March 12, 2017 Posted March 12, 2017 The DBS7400 is a class H power stage, and I think the DBS200 is the same. so that would be 200 Watts with 2000W peak. Has he tried the amp through different speakers? I would have thought that they'd be the most likely problem after 25 years. Blown Tweeter perhaps? Quote
Danuman Posted March 12, 2017 Author Posted March 12, 2017 Thanks! Class H seems like a cool concept. I sort of always took it to be an all valve amp, which is why I was never really surprised by the watts to real world power ratio, but I'm guessing this is something different. Pretty sure it's not the cabs, though. We hooked up my newly acquired amp, and it sounded magnificent. (Perhaps that suggests it's a direct comparison thing, but I borrowed the DBS on several occasions and I'm certain it used to sound a lot better.) Quote
Guest bassman7755 Posted March 12, 2017 Posted March 12, 2017 Well it only has one valve in it so you dont have much to lose by changing it. Quote
Danuman Posted March 13, 2017 Author Posted March 13, 2017 And it won't break the bank either, so there's really no reason not to try it. Could a worn out preamp tube cause such a lack of vitality in this particular circuit? I really don't have a clue... Quote
T-Bay Posted March 13, 2017 Posted March 13, 2017 [quote name='Danuman' timestamp='1489424552' post='3256806'] And it won't break the bank either, so there's really no reason not to try it. Could a worn out preamp tube cause such a lack of vitality in this particular circuit? I really don't have a clue... [/quote] I have a Marshall combo with the valve/ solid state mix and mine sounds superb, I know of another which sounded very flat compared to mine. It turned out it had a modern cheap valve in. The owner bought a NOS valve from the 70s and it sounded much much better. I don't know the ins and outs of exactly how the elastic trickery works but it was obvious to anyone how much difference the quality of the valve made. Quote
Danuman Posted March 13, 2017 Author Posted March 13, 2017 Looks like a fresh tube is our first order of business. Quote
Guest bassman7755 Posted March 13, 2017 Posted March 13, 2017 [quote name='Danuman' timestamp='1489424552' post='3256806'] Could a worn out preamp tube cause such a lack of vitality in this particular circuit? I really don't have a clue... [/quote] It could ... one thing you could try is to dial the "blend" control all the way to the solid state side and see if that improves things. Quote
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