Peavey DECA-700 (mid-1980s)
The Peavey DECA-700 is a professional power amp from the mid-1980s. It is the smaller sibling of the DECA-1200 in Peavey's "Digital Energy Conversion Amplification" line. Most of what survives about it comes from Peavey's own advertising, which ran in trade magazines from December 1984 through the middle of 1985. The ads made a big claim: the DECA-700 and DECA-1200 were "the world's first (and only) 90 percent efficient and truly digital power amplifiers." Peavey said it was a departure from conventional Class AB design and that it had applied for six patents. Mix (December 1984, p.111) carried the campaign. It touted the two amps as 24- and 26-pound units that ran with "virtually no heat."
An independent test in Modern Recording (April 1985, p.49) took the efficiency claim seriously. The reviewer noted that a conventional class B or AB 300-watt amplifier delivering 100 watts would draw roughly 300 watts from the power supply, with about half of it lost as heat. This design dissipated very little power and came out around 90% efficient. Measured under 8-ohm loads, the amp also earned praise for its DDT circuit, which the magazine said did an excellent job of preventing severe square-wave-type clipping.
Beyond that, the record is thin. Exact power output, full specifications, production years and original price for the DECA-700 are not documented in the Archive's sources. Most surviving references are Peavey advertisements rather than independent reviews.
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