DBX Expander

Markus,

The first this I would do is have the Reel to reel serviced. I know a Teac genius if you need a name. Even the cheapest Teacs were very good. I personally use a 3300SX and find it amazingly quiet and wonderfully dynamic. The only reel to reel that I have heard that I feel sounds BETTER is an Otari MX5050 (any version). Those are outstanding.

dbx NR (Type I or Type II) pretty much requires good equipment to start out with. The system is not tolerant with an unstable/mis-aligned tape transport, or being creative with the record levels printed to the tape. It exaggerates the problem of bad heads, intermittent loss of high frequencies, etc.

FYI, a 5bx just sold on Ebay tonight for $1100 which was actually cheap considering it's condition. I would have bid on it, just to have a 2nd unit - but I figure my wife would've ridiculed me perpetually - so I restrained myself.
Anyway, there was an interesting link provided by the seller, which is a "white paper" giving many details about the unit. Here it is for anyone who is interested:

http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/storage/4/929253/dbx%205BX-DS%20Marketing%20Notes.pdf

Opalchip,

Nice read about the dbx gear. Thanks.

The compression on the 5bx sounds useful for apartment dwellers or others that must listen to wide range recordings at lower volumes.

I have a 3bx and used to have a 118 single band expander/compressor. 1 band was rough, but 5band expansion and compression sounds like dynamite if adjusted correctly.

What a great thread!

I have a perfect 3BX-DS sitting in my closet I have not thought about in many years.

I had bought it new when CD first came out and I used to like to fall asleep listening to music, and found CD's (and later movies) to be too dynamic.
So I was mostly using it for compression, however I did like the effect of expansion for full scale listening sessions.

I am getting ready to move soon and would honestly probably have just left it on our trash floor with all the other gear I won't have space for (of course with a note indicating the stuff works)

So now I'll definitely not throw out the DBX. I'm curious to now try it - however it will be a challenge to try out since my system is currently balanced. I'll probably end up selling it however, now that I know what it's worth.