The Sony R7 really is quite the special box I'd read reports about. It just makes you smile at the awesomeness of sound :-) Whereas my TC M-OneXL makes you smile with the pure realism of sound, albeit somehow not quite so lovely.
The Sony DPS-R7 is a digital reverberator unit equipped entirely with Sony's digital and audio technology at its highest level of sophistication which was released before with the Digital Reverberator, DRE-2000 and MU-R201 and has received much praise.
Quality-conscious design A/D and D/A high performance converter
The Sony DPS-R7 converts the incoming analog signal to a digital signal, passes it through various effects, then re-converts it to an analog signal before output. The determinant to the sound quality is the conversion mechanism that adopts the 18-bit oversampling stereo A/D converter and the pulse D/A converter of 40.96 MHz. These account for highly accurate, less deteriorated effects.
Sony's DPS-*7 range started with the R7 Reverberator and D7 Delay, and then came the F7 Dynamic Filter and the M7 Sonic Modulator, which both have a front panel Meter select knob (instead of Effect level on the R7+D7), and all the internal chips on one board. The R7 has more RAM than the others, and the D7 is closer in specs to the F7/M7. A very cool VSE thread tells how the F7 and M7 actually share the same identical hardware, just running different firmware, which can even be modded so you can change device at the flick of a switch! I hope to do this mod to my F7 one day...
Here is the DPS-R7 Owners Manual and Service Manual (and others). My R7 is running software Version 1.2, whereas my F7 is running software Version 1.03 (these are the latest versions I've seen mentioned online). Let's compare the specs of the various units from their manuals:
Specifications | DPS-R7 | DPS-D7 | DPS-F7/M7 |
---|---|---|---|
A/D converter | 18 bit oversampling stereo A/D converter | ||
Sampling Frequency | 40 kHz | 48 kHz | |
D/A converter | 40.96 MHz clock pulse D/A converter | ? | 49.152 MHz clock advanced pulse D/A converter |
A/D, D/A delay time | ? | Approx. 2.3 msec | ? |
Frequency response | 10 Hz to 18 kHz +0dB/-1.0dB | 10 Hz to 22 kHz +0dB/-1.0dB | |
Signal-to-noise ratio | > 90dB | > 94dB | > 97dB |
Dynamic range | > 90dB | > 94dB | > 97dB |
Total harmonic distortion | < 0.004% (at 1 kHz) | < 0.0035% (at 1 kHz) | |
Preset memory | 100 effects | ||
User memory | maximum of 256 effects | ||
Power requirement | USA and Canadian model: 120 V AC, 60 Hz
UK model: 240 V AC, 50/60 Hz (adjustable with a voltage selector) Continental European model: 230 V AC, 50/60 Hz (adjustable with a voltage selector) | ||
Power consumption | 28 W | 27 W | |
Dimensions | Approx. 482 x 44 320 mm (19 x 1.75 x 12.625 inches) (excluding projections) (w/h/d) | ||
Weight | 4.8 kg (10 lb 10 oz) | 5.0 kg (11 lb 1 oz) |
Since the DPS-*7 units were very similar to each other, these R7 battery upgrade howto's should be useful for D7 and F7/M7 owners too.
Sony also made an optional remote commander called the Sony RM-DPS7 which could operate a whole distant rack of DPS-*7 units over a long 9-pin D-Sub cable, and remotely switch between them; please let me know if you have this remote control for sale.
© copyright Malcolm Smith 2010-10-30 - last updated 2018-02-10 - links verified 2018-02-10