Latest User Reviews

So, this was a bit of an impulsive/curiosity purchase for me, as I’d heard quite a bit about this unit, and low and behold, one was offered to me at a silly price, along with the remote. The word on the street, is the DN780 was designed to be a ‘poor man’s AMS’? Now whether that’s true or not, I’m not sure, but there are plenty of ‘similarities’ when you instantly take a glance!

I’m not exactly sure when the 780 came out, but I’m guessing around 1984-86? but that’s the general time that the digital reverb market became affordable and other companies could Compete with the big players that had already got well established but cost a small fortune back then! The design of the 780 is pretty straightforward and I would be amazed if whoever designed it didn’t look at how the front panel of the RMX 16 was set out?

Operationally, it is very similar in someways to the AMS and differs in others… The front panel is very intuitive and nicely laid out (although I’m not a great fan of the multicoloured LED numerals) But I understand why they did it. The build quality of the 780 is pretty good and although it was built to a lesser budget, I would have to say, for the most part, it has stood up well to the test of time. I bought mine about five years ago and it had been sat around for quite some years before I got hold of it, and a few of the buttons needed cleaning (as did all the remote-control sliders). On the subject of the remote control, it is A nice addition and is very simple to use. Like a lot of reverbs that were supplied with remotes, sadly, quite a few have been lost over time and they are extremely difficult to find on their own…Now onto the sound.

The DN780 Is a great sounding reverb. It has all the usual variations of hall, plate, vocal and nonlinear algorithms and is fully Programmable with plenty of user memory locations (which the AMS sadly lacks) As you’d expect, it is not an AMS (In terms of its sound quality) but being fair, a few of the algorithms are not that far off!

My honest opinion is that if you are comparing the two (as I am) Then you would automatically gravitate towards the AMS, but let’s also be fair and reflect on the fact that the AMS was over three time the price when it came out! As a general reverb around a budget, it really isn’t that far behind! And here in the U.K, a good DM780 will cost you about a grand, and an AMS £3.5-£4k! so value for money is open to personal opinion and preference? Considering how much they were when they were new, and how much they go for now on the second-hand market, I have to say that the DN 780 is excellent value for money and easily stand up to being a useful main (or secondary) studio reverb.

To sum up, I was very impressed when I got mine and I have used it on various things such as keyboards and drums, where I have actually preferred some of its algorithms compared to some of the bigger Lexicon and AMS rivals. If you can find one in good condition along with the remote, I would strongly advise buying one and adding it as a useful addition. They’re not that common here and seem to be getting more on people’s ‘radar list’ as something to try and buy.

Possible immediate attention may be needed to replace the ventilation fans inside, as they weren’t the best quality ones used, and they may all have noisy bearings. I replaced mine very easily and fairly inexpensively. Generally they are fairly stable and a lot less Intricate inside (compared to things such as the AMS) parts are fairly easy to obtain too, such as remote sliders, replacement fans and volume pots..

I bought one of these when they first came out in the early 80s and loved it. You have to remember the time this was, and in respect to that time, it was cutting-edge technology and total freedom for songwriters like me to start cutting demos at home. I thought the sound quality was excellent given the format being used, and sure a reel to reel sounded better, but the 244 was so portable and an all-in-one solution compared to the very heavy reel to reel options.

Ever wonder why these are still in use in most studios, or why they are being remade by other companies? They feature on thousands of records from the seventies onwards because they are great at what they are designed to do, and no plugin gets it right in my opinion.

I have had this thing for decades now, still use it on every mix I do. It has only let me down once during that time, but a quick trip to the service tech and it was back up and running like new. Could not live without it!

When these things came out, I was in a position to be able to use them for a number of recordings and have to say they sounded very good. I used two machines synchronised into a 24-track system and never had an issue. The tapes however are all but impossible to find these days so I would not buy one now, but in their day they were excellent.

The DBX 160SL has become a standard in our studio rack. From super smooth compression and limiting, to lightning fast, aggressive pumping and distortion. This box has it all. With the addition of internal switching to allow 2 different styles of compression, it is one of the most versatile boxes we have at our disposal.

While it isn’t the easiest box to dial in, after spending time with it, I have been able to use it on almost any source material, achieving near undetectable compression, to the most gritty / artifact sounds. The biggest drawback of these units are the main vca modules, the V8 VCA. Unfortunately, these modules tend to go bad, particularly in the early units, as the VCA’s ran at 24v. This, along with the power supply caused heat issues, eventually damaging the V8 VCA’s.

As the V8 modules are potted, this makes them unserviceable. However, there are companies (Van-Daal Electronics) who make replacement V8 modules that can bring these units back to life. If you happen to have access to one, I highly recommend taking the time to check them out.

We use this for our roots reggae sound system on our send controls. The unit clearly echo’s mid/high range vocals and instruments at the turn of one control once you have set the delay speed, feedback and output on the mix. It will oscillate when opened above 75% to recreate long delays through both music and mic line. A must have for anyone looking for an authentic rack mounted delay to compliment your preamp. We have two of these units after trial and era using Deltalabs, Maxons, Soundcraft and Roland Space Echo, the latter that everyone bangs on about. This unit in my opinion is the best I have used to date and if you get it at the right price, you’ll be laughing. Give it a try, you won’t be disappointed.

The Sony PCM-9000 was an incredible machine that would probably still stand up today from a sound quality point of view. They were dear as poison when they were released (around US$20K) and go for chicken feed today which is crazy in itself. The timing for the release of the PCM-9000 was right when hard drives were taking over, but still, it’s success as a master recorder for archiving would have sustained it for a while I am sure. Anyway, great machine from a great time in Sony’s professional audio products peak period.

The DBX 676 Tube Mic Channel Strip is a joy to use. Its warm valve and OverEasy compressed sound enhanced everything I put through it, making it sound bigger and better. The DBX 676 is an appealing option, especially if you are looking for something special and love the valve sound.

I was not sure where this fitted in with Yamaha’s line of reverbs, was it a top end model or a low end. One listen and I was surprised to find it must be near their top end as it sounded very good indeed. Not your typical Yamaha design styling but don’t let the looks put you off, it is a great reverb.

I bought this with great anticipation, only to be massively disappointed when I plugged it in. The unit sounds very dark and boring really. I sold it almost immediately after it arrived.

I’m still getting to know this unit. I recently changed the battery and capacitors. It’s remarkably clean sounding with good headroom. It has a handful of excellent presets but the rest are sort of snore boring. I was hoping this unit would have similarly cool and useful presets like its brother the V55 but unfortunately not even close. The V55 had stellar presets IMO but its quality doesn’t even compare to the V77. This is light years ahead sonically in every regard. Clearly I need to dig in and create presets I like but out of the ones I have taken a shine to I can say that they are splendid. There’s obviously a great deal of power inside this box and I can’t wait to unleash it all.