Howard, at least some of those old DecTalks used a center negative. One that
I've got uses a center positive but I've an older one that uses a center
negative. Best to check that out.
The power supply doesn't need to be regulated but it should be pretty clean or
you'll get a lot of noise in there.
Tom
Tom Brennan KD5VIJ, CCC-A/SLP
web page http://titan.sfasu.edu/~g_brennantg/sonicpage.html