NNNAD. DSL100HR #3 just arrived...
And...
Fuck.
It has the exact same problem #2 had. Since #1 and #2 were both weird, but not in the same way, I figured they were both flukes. (Recap: #1 had a high pitched mechanical whine coming out of the power transformer. #2 had a low pitched buzz coming out of the power transformer.) #3 is has the exact same low pitched buzz as #2. Could I ignore it? Sure. Would anyone hear it in typical room at a rock show? Not at all. Is it right? Nope. Will it drive me crazy at home? Yup. Might it indicate a bigger problem waiting down the road? Who knows?
If I hadn't bought a used DSL100H in between HR #1 and HR #2, I'd be wondering if maybe this wasn't just my OCD flaring up. But with the DSL100H (as with every other tube amp I've ever owned), when the volume is down or the amp is on Standby, it's silent; you can't even tell whether it's on. By contrast, these HRs - brand new - are noisy AF.
I can't even write this off as a "by design" weakness of the HR, since #1 and #2 were vibrating at vastly different frequencies. Just seems like QA or tolerances are way out of whack on these. I'm not going to bother asking for a fourth HR. At this point I have to decide (again) whether to get my money back, or whether the amp was cheap enough to excuse the need for bench time right out of the box.
This absolutely sucks because I dig everything else about the amp. After digging a little deeper into the DSL100H the last couple of weeks, then coming back to the HR, I think I prefer the sound of the HR overall. And the MIDI and 2x MVs are great features. Ah well, so it goes...