[Amps] MORE AMP TALK

[Gudguyham at aol.com]

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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