A while ago I purchased a dbx117 for about $15 from a guy who said it had been stored for 10 years, but "last time it was used it worked fine."
(Actually I bought the dbx and a Pioneer GA60 dynamic range enhancer with the intention of comparing them both to my modified PL1000 - but that's a topic for a future post.) Anyways, opened up the dbx to give it a once-over before plugging it in and, no surprise , the power supply caps had obviously leaked.
No big deal, I actually had the caps on hand to re-cap the whole unit, so I decided to do that before trying anything else. There really aren't many user replaceable parts in this thing. Most of the processing seems to take place within three application-specific modules.
So, I replaced the power supply filter caps and the rest of the electrolytics with new parts of the same value that I removed. Powered it up, and nothing - no power. Checked the ps diodes and found one was cracked, so I replaced all four with general purpose diodes I also had on-hand.
Plugged it in again, and it seems to work fine, albeit a much more subtle expansion range of effect than the modified PL1000 or the Pioneer.
I'm going to also swap out the RCA jacks on the back of my unit. They are fairly thick with that salty-looking corrosion that we're all familiar with.
OK, I'm getting to the point where I'm going to ask a question, but will continue in the next post...
Wherever you go, there you are. Buckaroo Bonzai (1984)
Carver HR-752, Carver M-400 (X 2), Carver C-1, Carver M-1.0t, Carver M-0.5t, Carver M-500t, Carver CT-7
Phase Linear 1000 Autocorrelator Noise Reduction System
Klipsch Cornwalls
Bose AM-7, Bose AM-5, Bose AM-3
Numark TT1520 w/Shure V15 III
Musical Fidelity X-10 v3 Tube Buffer
