I received many personal e-mails from the last soap box talk. so I'll
continue. Many of us are seasoned amp users and could write similar reviews
on
many amps. For those of you who are not and enjoy reading about older amps
available for purchase, here goes. Lets have a look at Dentron amps. Before
I
decide to discuss each individual amplifier I'll say this, which will hold
true for the rest of the amplifier products involved. You can disagree with
me
that's fine, this is simply all my own opinions. If you are one who would
have never and still would never buy and drive a "YUGO" automobile, then you
would probably pass right over any amplifier that used 811A and 572B tubes.
One of my good amp Guru friends, once said that if you need more than 2 tubes
to make the desired power, you picked the wrong tube! I agree whole
heartedly! SO this includes in the Dentron line, the 160L and The Clipperton
L. So
what's left, the MLA-2500. DTR-1200, and the DTR-2000L. The MLA-2500
actually impresses me, as with most all Dentron's, they have a very heavy duty
power
transformer, I like that. The first MLA-2500 does not have a tuned input
circuit, that may be a consideration for you. The later model did have one.
The few that I had and operated, I liked, but unless I had a bushel full of
8875 tubes, it would not be my amp of choice. If you like chasing down high
priced old tubes, then you might consider one of these amps. That is not my
idea of fun however. The amp makes a great tube conversion candidate, but
you better plan on doing the work yourself, it is a labor of love to do such a
thing. The DTR-1200L is basically a single tube version of the MLA-2500.
As with most Dentron amps, their tank circuit efficiency falls off above 20
meters. That leaves the DTR-2000L, this is one popular amp!! It commands
BIG
BUCKS on the used market. This amp uses a single 8877, and in my opinion,
this is one SUPER tube for an amplifier! Suffice to say, I love this tube!
But the DTR-2000L, well this amp does play, and its good for about 1700 watts
output. Unfortunately it has loads of short comings. To mention a few, it
uses a one leg chassis ground filament supply, no filament choke, and not
only no grid current overload protection, YOU CAN'T EVEN READ GRID CURRENT ON
THE METER!! JEEZZZ! SO you better be real careful you don't toast the grid
on that 8877. Again, like with most Dentron's it has a heavy duty
transformer, no tuned input circuit, and the tank efficiency falls off above 20
meters.
Many of us have taken this amp and fixed the short comings and made it a
much better, but again, a labor of love. Why they command so much money on
the
used market is beyond me. If you can get one at a "fair price" you might
like this amp. I think there are better choices however. Dentron did use
very
good band switches in pretty much all of their amps, and the likely hood of
the amp having a bad one is much more slim than an SB-220.
Dentron finally figured out that most of their product line used obsolete
tubes or more than 2 tubes, so they stopped making them and later came AMP
SUPPLY. AMP SUPPLY was basically the rebirth of Dentron, same owner/designer
of
the amps. This time he got smart and built amplifiers with better tubes, the
3-500 and the 3CX800. Namely, the LK-450, LK-500 series amps with single
and 2, 3-500 amps. In these amps you'll see some Peter Dahl plate
transformers, but you will see the same typical Dentron tank circuits and band
switches.
Not a bad amplifier at all, these amps now had tuned input circuits. There
were 3 models of the LK-500, basically all the same except the B and C models
had some safety amp shut down features. The C more than the B. Nothing
that impressed me as an experienced amp user. Then there was the LK-800
series
with the 3CX800 tubes, pretty nice amp powerful, tuned inputs, but I really
think it lacked in the cooling dept. Many of us would thumb down cooling
theses tubes with a muffing fan. You'd have to be careful the tubes did not
over
heat. Again on this amp, I don't recall any grid overload protection, so be
careful of the grid current, on this one, you can read it. They made a 3
tube 3CX800 model and I did have one in here for repair owned by a VERY well
know contester that shall remain anonymous, this amp was overheated to the
point where the Eimac chimney's melted to the tubes. This amp got hot!!
Seeing
that this amp is capable of 2X legal limit output, I think the muffin fan is
a little light for the job. Maybe OK for legal limit but you can easily do
that with 2 3cx800 tubes. I really don't quite understand what the market was
for that amp, but if you run one all the way up, you better consider some
alternate cooling.
73 Lou
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