jeff beck uses the new DSL. I have been able to get pretty good tones using the new DSL when I dick around with them. I have thought about getting one - but I am leaning more towards an AC30.

I am thinking about trading a guy my 2007 Mesa Single Rectifier Solo Series 2 head for a brand new DSL100H. No matter what I do to the Single Rectifier it always sounds like METAL. I need more of a straight up rock sound. The DSL would be perfect. I was thinking about throwing the BBE Sonic Stomp in the loop and using it for solo boost. It actually might work good. If not.. I will just get either a volume pedal or some kind of clean boost pedal to throw in the loop.

I like the amp. it's priced right for what it is and it sounds good. I'd say go for it. if you want a more modern marshall sound, the DSL is it - in spades.

I tried out a DSL 15H recently. I was actually testing out a 4x12 cab but the amp sounds really good.

Wasn't looking for new DSL but we were at a music store and decided to plug into it to test drive it. It was dead! Power light comes on but no sound output. We swapped cabs, guitars, cords, nothing worked. It was going to be packed up by the store and sent back to Marshall. I'll stick with the older, used JCM 2000. They can also be modded for relatively inexpensively.

I am picking up the DSL100H tomorrow. I like all the new design changes from the original JCM2000 DSL100's. I owned a few DSL100's, a TSL100 and a TSL50. I never had an issue with any of them. The DSL100H that is made in Vietnam looks to be better made. Chassis mounted tube sockets, no more multi-layered PC boards, the adjustable resonance control instead of the DEEP switch and the 50/100 pentode-triode switch. I also heard they improved the effects loop and the red channel is now voiced a little more modern and brighter. All of those changes are exactly what I thought the original DSL100 JCM2000 needed.

I wouldn't judge the build quality or reliability of a all tube amp head just because there was a dead one on the floor of a music store. Have you seen what people do to these amps that are on the floor? My guess is somebody probably turned it on with no speaker load or something else crazy.
That's the reason you hear way more horror stories on DSL's than say... Bogner Ubershalls.
If Guitar Center had 30 Bogners on the floor and they sold thousands of them to every type of player.. from a newbie to a seasoned pro you would read tons of stories of how they blew up or smoked or stopped working. I met a dude once that had a Marshall Plexi Reissue full stack and had NO IDEA what impedance meant, what speaker load meant, what standby meant, what bias meant and he didn't know he couldn't have the amp on without a speaker plugged into it. He said that at times he had it on for extended amounts of time with no speakers plugged into it. He had to have it repaired twice in the year that he owned it. He blamed it on the fact that Marshall used to make great amps but now they are all crap.

Not to highjack the thread, but I'm surprised that no company has come up with a safeguard for this. Maybe a built-in "dummy" impedance load that gets taken out of the game when a cable is plugged in or something.

Or does this exist?

The statement regarding the store demos is very true.

That's why you always see more combo's out on the floor than half stacks. Still.. I would NEVER trust a tube head that is sitting on the floor of a music store.

In any case.. I am pretty excited about getting this DSL100H. Its always fun when a new amp shows up. I have always been more of an amp guy than a guitar guy.

For years I've heard the thing about never powering on a tube amp without an impedance load, so I've always lived by this. You hear about blown transformers and such.

My question, though, is..... how soon would this probably happen after powering on without a speaker?

I "think" that safeguard resistance would be a great idea and not to hard to implement.

How long to blow a tranny? It depends. If you dial up full volume and plug in and power chord away, likely not too long. Also depends on the quality of the tranny, thickness of the wire used in the windings, etc.

And I've seen many dead heads in stores just like John said. It happens.

I "think" that safeguard resistance would be a great idea and not to hard to implement.

How long to blow a tranny? It depends. If you dial up full volume and plug in and power chord away, likely not too long. Also depends on the quality of the tranny, thickness of the wire used in the windings, etc.

And I've seen many dead heads in stores just like John said. It happens.

I have a friend who runs a music store, and despite his initial misgivings, he ended up REALLY liking the Viet-Marshall. He's had a plie of DSL's over the years, and just happened to plug into the MIV one to test a guitar, and was quite surprised by how much he liked it. He said it felt a lot more alive than the MIE models he has had.