DBX Anyone ?

[Marvel]

DBX still is a company, now making all pro equipment, analog and digital electronic crossovers, compressors, etc. They started out with a noise reduction system in competition with Dolby. You can find DBX encoded LPs. It just never caught on.

[Frzninvt]

8 hours ago, Marvel said:

DBX still is a company, now making all pro equipment, analog and digital electronic crossovers, compressors, etc. They started out with a noise reduction system in competition with Dolby. You can find DBX encoded LPs. It just never caught on.

Marvel, it is not the same company though.  When DBX consumer went under in the early 90's they sold the name to DAK that sold sub par gear via a catalog with the DBX name on it.  Sad times.  The name was then purchased by Harman International who make the professional gear carrying the DBX name.  They only ever offered depot service so parts and service information was sparse.  The Head Engineer Gene Raymond serviced gear for awhile in CA then sold the remnants of his operation to the Sound Room in Berkely, CA who in turn resold it to Musician's Service Center, CA no idea if they are still doing any service work.

[Marvel]

Oh, I know that, but all the pro gear is good.

[CCG]

Any comments on the dbx 228? expander / noise reduction?

specifically for reel to reel noise reduction. Thanks!

[Racer X]

My take is Dolby easily dominated the tape noise reduction domain being first and also Dolby tapes still playable on non Dolby decks, especially car stereos. 

 

Dbx was superior performance but never really caught on as a dbx encoded tape not so playable on non dbx deck.

 

As for reel to reel, they were usually quiet enough without noise reduction, cassette not so much.  And digital soon became more widely available soon after dbx 228 and dbx cassette decks hit the market. 

[Marvel]

Dolby had a good head start, and as you stated, you could play back dolby tapes without decoding and most wouldn't hear the difference, especially in a car.

 

Dolby SR for studio decks worked extremely well. You still had to deal with wow and flutter, speed stability and tape issues.

[CCG]

Very good point. Anyway I don't use headphones on reels besides re-mastering. I don't hear it at all on the actual system with speakers.

[babadono]

9 hours ago, Frzninvt said:

who in turn resold it to Musician's Service Center, CA no idea if they are still doing any service work

I was able a few years back to get "some" service documentation for 4BX units from this business...he sent me copies of all he had for $35. It was enough along with pdf schematics that I obtained for free from THAT Corp. for me to piece together a pretty thorough understanding of the units. I then was able to refurbish them with better VCAs and Rms level detectors from THAT Corp. Also upgraded all the opamps,rewamped the power supply and standby power circuits. Of course replaced all the electrolytic caps also. Also found a gentleman in Australia that re designed the remote control circuitry and made it actually work! He then also designed a new programmable remote control. A little later I put balanced interfaces in the units which I documented in the thread linked above.

[CCG]

On 2/5/2023 at 7:42 AM, Frzninvt said:

The Pioneer EX-9000's sound quality is on par with the DBX 3BX I still have one that I use in conjunction with a BBE 1002 Sonic Maximizer.  You can always get the DBX 2015G which is a 2/3 octave equalizer lots of adjusability with no fancy display.  DBX also made the 10/5, 10/20, and 20/20, and lastly the pro version 510 computer equalizers.  I remember the 8055 I had a silver one, then later on the 8066 that had a sensor grid to adjust the settings that took some getting used to.

 

The DBX DX5 CD player has a 1BX-DS built into it and provides lots of adjustment depending on how well or not so well the recording was done.

 

My 14/10 and 5BX-DS below lots of adjusability between the two units.

On your 400 passive router, go you have to run a jumper in the noise reduction in/out to bypass if not using? Thanks CCG 

[the real Duke Spinner]

I am still using a dBX 120, maybe ??

Subharmonic Synthesizer ....Purists stay away. 😀

[Coytee]

18 hours ago, CCG said:

On your 400 passive router, go you have to run a jumper in the noise reduction in/out to bypass if not using? Thanks CCG 

I don't believe so.  I had a 200 and a 400.  Same "machine" with the difference being the 400 had a plug.....why did it have a plug?  So you could see the lights that were on the front.  Both units were passive in what they did but they added some illumination to the 400.

 

 

@the real Duke Spinner

 

Dukester....  I think it depends on do you have the original or newer one?

 

The 120 (I have a 120 X-DS that's not being used) is the newer version.  It is a wide, skinny box.  The (what I think is) "original" version didn't have a number on it unless they had it on the back.  It was a 'dbx Boom Box" and was a bit of an odd size however, I found space for it.  It either was or became the dbx 100.

 

It is to the right of the Cassette deck.

 

This was back in...... somewhere between 1980-1982 if I recall....had all this in my dorm room.  You can see the LaScalas which I still have in the corner.

 

 

 

 

 

[CCG]

2 hours ago, Coytee said:

I don't believe so.  I had a 200 and a 400.  Same "machine" with the difference being the 400 had a plug.....why did it have a plug?  So you could see the lights that were on the front.  Both units were passive in what they did but they added some illumination to the 400.

 

 

@the real Duke Spinner

 

Dukester....  I think it depends on do you have the original or newer one?

 

The 120 (I have a 120 X-DS that's not being used) is the newer version.  It is a wide, skinny box.  The (what I think is) "original" version didn't have a number on it unless they had it on the back.  It was a 'dbx Boom Box" and was a bit of an odd size however, I found space for it.  It either was or became the dbx 100.

 

It is to the right of the Cassette deck.

 

This was back in...... somewhere between 1980-1982 if I recall....had all this in my dorm room.  You can see the LaScalas which I still have in the corner.

 

 

 

 

 

Excellent looking setup!. That's basically what I'm doing too. This is to my dedicated recording setup. I have an 80's sony integrated amp with 2 phonos and 3 decks selector. That amp is dying soon. Not the best sounding amp but one heck of a recording amp. I'm definitely gonna miss it.

I also have a dynamic expander that I will add in the setup. I like the dbx 200 more because its closer to the silverface. I also have the 400 but It was throwing me off a bit when I tested it due to the light indicators. the RCA integration wont work if it wasn't powered on. Maybe I was doing something not right...?

Thank you for the follow-up.