AudioFrog Posted September 26, 2006 Share Posted September 26, 2006 I have a pair of Forte II's with the Munson crossovers and I am very happy with the sound... or so I thought! Recently I was experimenting with various receivers and amps with the Forte's when I thought I would try a nice new Crown XTi2000 DSP pro amp. When I was researching the amp I stumbled upon folks raving about the latest generation BBE Sonic Maximizer so I bought the BBE 882i to go along with the Crown. To make a long story short, the Crown turns out to be simply amazing (on it's own). Bass extension! Clean highs! Cleanly articulated midrange. But wait! It gets better! In goes the BBE unit and magically all that 'wood cabinet' congestion is completely gone, replaced by a completely transparent, very deep soundstage. I kid you not, the BBE completely cleans up the sound WITHOUT any detrimental effect on the original source. It has no signiture. The end result leaves the Forte's as simply the best I've heard, period. End of story. The BBE is very well built and uses 1% mil-spec resistors in the signal path. I have the complete balanced version feeding the Crown but you can get XLR to RCA cables for non-balanced setups. It's a 19" rack job but it's attractive. Disregard anything you might think about signal processors and try one out. You'll thank me, guaranteed! http://www.bbesound.com/products/maxim/882i.asp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Spinner Posted September 26, 2006 Share Posted September 26, 2006 you are aware that the BBE algorithm, is in essence, a fuzz box ...?? it adds distortion..........to the audio signal .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerohm Posted September 26, 2006 Share Posted September 26, 2006 I have used the software plug-in with Cool Edit Pro for several years to help with internet audio at times. There are as many people who swear by it, as there are that just swear at it. In any case, the effect can be overpowering if misused. I had a great link discussing it, but I get forbidden access now, or I would post it. It works different from an aural exciter (which adds in higher order harmonics - similar to tube distortion ), but the effects can be similar. It actually phase shifts frequencies (fequency dependant) in two different bands - lo and high. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AudioFrog Posted September 26, 2006 Author Share Posted September 26, 2006 Duke, Actually it introduces a slight phase shift for mids and highs and a slight delay for bass frequencies so that the speaker's driver can better handle that particular frequency's modulation without distorting (breakup of the driver's diaphragm or cone) If that is called distortion then it sure sounds good. BTW: Your listening room is the single biggest distortion producting element of your audio chain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AudioFrog Posted September 26, 2006 Author Share Posted September 26, 2006 Jerohm, Aural exciters only process upper frequencies and, under a scope, produce true distortions of the original signal to draw out detail. The BBE does not alter the amplitude of the original signal. It splits the signal at two given crossover points and resplices them to shift phase and adds very slight delay for lower frequencies. The original signal is the same otherwise. The BBE plug-in is a software solution that typically does not yield nearly the same result as a hardware-based one like the 482i or 882i. These are 4th generation BBE's by the way. Zzounds (where I got mine) has a 30 day return policy for anyone who cares to try one out. Your loss if you don't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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