DSL100HR (and likely DSL40CR) question

[PelliX]

TAD claims they have its own factory in China, which of course is baloney.

LOL... let's book a factory tour!

 

[svinyard]

Interesting to think of the DSL more like a modeler, given the intrusive digital components. True, I don't play at very high volumes. I still have to work on dialing things in. I want to get the hardware down first--tubes and actually maybe a speaker as well, one that doesn't emphasize mids, perhaps a G12T-75?

Personally, given that I have no experience with JCMs or Plexis, I certainly didn't expect their more affordable DSL line to sound like the fancy stuff, just retain some Marshally character. But I didn't expect it to sound this bad either. These amps don't have 5 gain stages though, at least not tube. Both ultra and classic have, what, 2.5 gain stages.

Would love to be able to dime the master volume and see what happens

Yeah it doesn't entirely have that same classic Marshall character...a lot of that is because it's fairly scooped in its tone. When you play it next to a typical marshall...it's very noticeable (it's different, but not bad per say). It's missing those Marshall mids and some brightness. Part of that is due to no bright cap in there so it sounds a bit dull, but at lower volumes that can sometimes be the lesser of evils. You don't want a speaker that removes mids, you want one that adds them IMO. I think the Amp has a bit of a Mesa boogie thing going on rather than classic Marshall, which is cool. If you want classic marshall, get a classic marshall. When I bought mine, I didn't really understand that at the time. Fwiw, the 40C does have a more classic tone to it...and a bright cap.

The stock speaker in the 40CR is just fine. Trust me, I A/B'd 7 different speakers and nothing really did much for the amp outside of a V30 for metal stuff. I will say that the Green back was def an improvement but it's only 25w...you could only run that at lower volumes or it'd pop. The creamback (A/B'd within 2 mins of each other several times) is not like the Greenback. The best part of a Greenback is the woody mids AND, most importantly, the bit of sizzle/break up on the highs. The Creamback has some of the mids but is the opposite of the greenback on the highs...it tries really hard to maintain the highs with clarity (creamy) not that classic buzz. In the end, I didn't want to invest almost 200$ into an amp speaker with marginal gains. Its swimming up-river. If you don't like the amp, sell it....or just get another Marshall that fills the particular gap. You can find the studio amps on sale for 800-1000$. There's an ST20 sitting on Facebook near me for a long time and it's finally dropped to 800$ (maybe 750$ by now). I enjoy it for high gain stuff tho...the stuff that Marshall classic amps don't do stock without a bunch of diodes and pedals (or spendy JVM). Just run it with SD-1 to tighten the bass.

 

[wrmstr55]

Yeah it doesn't entirely have that same classic Marshall character...a lot of that is because it's fairly scooped in its tone. When you play it next to a typical marshall...it's very noticeable (it's different, but not bad per say). It's missing those Marshall mids and some brightness. Part of that is due to no bright cap in there so it sounds a bit dull, but at lower volumes that can sometimes be the lesser of evils. You don't want a speaker that removes mids, you want one that adds them IMO. I think the Amp has a bit of a Mesa boogie thing going on rather than classic Marshall, which is cool. If you want classic marshall, get a classic marshall. When I bought mine, I didn't really understand that at the time. Fwiw, the 40C does have a more classic tone to it...and a bright cap.

The stock speaker in the 40CR is just fine. Trust me, I A/B'd 7 different speakers and nothing really did much for the amp outside of a V30 for metal stuff. I will say that the Green back was def an improvement but it's only 25w...you could only run that at lower volumes or it'd pop. The creamback (A/B'd within 2 mins of each other several times) is not like the Greenback. The best part of a Greenback is the woody mids AND, most importantly, the bit of sizzle/break up on the highs. The Creamback has some of the mids but is the opposite of the greenback on the highs...it tries really hard to maintain the highs with clarity (creamy) not that classic buzz. In the end, I didn't want to invest almost 200$ into an amp speaker with marginal gains. Its swimming up-river. If you don't like the amp, sell it....or just get another Marshall that fills the particular gap. You can find the studio amps on sale for 800-1000$. There's an ST20 sitting on Facebook near me for a long time and it's finally dropped to 800$ (maybe 750$ by now). I enjoy it for high gain stuff tho...the stuff that Marshall classic amps don't do stock without a bunch of diodes and pedals (or spendy JVM). Just run it with SD-1 to tighten the bass.

I know what you mean but I was planning on getting another speaker for my other amps anyway, in the running are the G12T-75 and the G12H Anniversary. Both supposedly tame the mids.
The problem I'm hearing in this amp is some harsh dry upper mids, which is why it sounds just awful with a V30.
Unfortunately around here, the used market for amps is near dead. And I enjoy tinkering with things anyway. I'll probably end up doing the PentodeLicious mod, unless somehow I manage to sell it.

 

[svinyard]

What's the Pentodeliscious mod?

I know what you mean but I was planning on getting another speaker for my other amps anyway, in the running are the G12T-75 and the G12H Anniversary. Both supposedly tame the mids.
The problem I'm hearing in this amp is some harsh dry upper mids, which is why it sounds just awful with a V30.
Unfortunately around here, the used market for amps is near dead. And I enjoy tinkering with things anyway. I'll probably end up doing the PentodeLicious mod, unless somehow I manage to sell it.

 

[wrmstr55]

What's the Pentodeliscious mod?

This one

NAD - DSL100HR

It has arrived yesterday and was only able to play it today. TL;DR mehhh Yeah it sounds pretty decent for the price(got it for 600$) But overall nothing to write home about. It does sound better than the horrible videos on youtube(sound clips below). Played around with the bias and preamp...

www.marshallforum.com