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[Mike Henderson]

Any of you DJ's here ever tried any Bass Enhancers and can give your feedback on them please?

Many years ago I had owned a couple of the dbx 120 Subharmonics units. I can;t remember which of the models [120a, 120x, 120xp or the 120x-ds] i had owned. I am now seeing there is a 510 model too. I have also been told that units like the BBE models help give the bass a nice tone.

[Steve-White]

Not to come in and crap up your thread sir.  I've messed around with a few in demo rooms and a couple of club installs that had dbx units years ago.  In the grand scheme of things, no hauling anything but what ya need and over time evolving the PA's themselves - I don't use them and won't use them.

A good PA (Playback System) stands on it's own merit and that's been my approach.  That being stated, I'm a bit more that a single entity DJ show - now the DJ systems are a part of the overall operation.  Processing I have used was back in the vinyl days Phase Linear auto correlators which provided ~4db dynamic range expansion.  When setup correctly they sounded pretty good for vinyl.  Also use compressors for talk-overs or ducking to make clean announcements without completely muting music program.

In dance music the LF energy is there - it takes a system that can pump it out there night after night - in the end it's the cost of amps and subs.

[Mike Henderson]

Not to come in and crap up your thread sir.  I've messed around with a few in demo rooms and a couple of club installs that had dbx units years ago.  In the grand scheme of things, no hauling anything but what ya need and over time evolving the PA's themselves - I don't use them and won't use them.

A good PA (Playback System) stands on it's own merit and that's been my approach.  That being stated, I'm a bit more that a single entity DJ show - now the DJ systems are a part of the overall operation.  Processing I have used was back in the vinyl days Phase Linear auto correlators which provided ~4db dynamic range expansion.  When setup correctly they sounded pretty good for vinyl.  Also use compressors for talk-overs or ducking to make clean announcements without completely muting music program.

In dance music the LF energy is there - it takes a system that can pump it out there night after night - in the end it's the cost of amps and subs.

Yeah when I had used them back then it was with a vinyl system.

[Steve-White]

Yeah when I had used them back then it was with a vinyl system.

i have a couple of dbx DriveRack PA2's in the studio and den music systems that are playback systems and messed around with the sub synth in the den a little and ended up defeating it.  The den system had 4 x JBL 2245's in a pair if MD7 enclosures, so no lack of bottom end capability.  For music during the day it's on MC DirecTV which has limited bandwidth from processing which is why I started playing around in the first place.  If I want to rock, just play a CD.

Good question you pose - I'll keep a watch on the thread just for curiosity on what others are doing these days.  With all the powered stuff out there with built in processing I would suspect not much usage.  However, I've seen setups that were way over the top for signal manipulation and there are probably a few of those out there. 

[Dennis Wiggins]

Read the previous post: "On The Turning Away" (from unpowered speakers)

-Dennis

[Mike Henderson]

Good question you pose - I'll keep a watch on the thread just for curiosity on what others are doing these days.  With all the powered stuff out there with built in processing I would suspect not much usage.  However, I've seen setups that were way over the top for signal manipulation and there are probably a few of those out there. 

Yeah seems most folks opt to use the included Subharmonics in Powered Speakers or Digital Processors these days instead of Hardware. At any rate though, if memory serves those DBX units were used to lower the bass frequency and not enhance? I think the BBE units might have been used more for enhancing but I never used one of those.

[John L Nobile]

Yeah seems most folks opt to use the included Subharmonics in Powered Speakers or Digital Processors these days instead of Hardware. At any rate though, if memory serves those DBX units were used to lower the bass frequency and not enhance? I think the BBE units might have been used more for enhancing but I never used one of those.

I used to have a BBE unit in the 90's. The bass enhance was useless. It just muddied things up.

I always thought of those DBX 120's as something to add bass that wasn't there. That was an issue with older recordings but there's a TON of low end on modern trax. If you need more bass in the mix, turn up the subs or the bass instruments. I would think that using one of these FX to add more bass that you can get with a system might damage your speakers.

[Mike Henderson]

I used to have a BBE unit in the 90's. The bass enhance was useless. It just muddied things up.

I always thought of those DBX 120's as something to add bass that wasn't there. That was an issue with older recordings but there's a TON of low end on modern trax. If you need more bass in the mix, turn up the subs or the bass instruments. I would think that using one of these FX to add more bass that you can get with a system might damage your speakers.

I am not seeking to add more bass on my system or get deeper bass, got lots of it. Was just curious about enhancers and what they do. Actually it was speaker cabinet builder who had told me short while back that the BBE and Aural Exciters adds better tonal tonal quality to bass.

Personally I think the old school way to put an Eq separately on the bass is as good as anything but question is, does it really make any difference than from having an Eq between the Mixer and Crossover?

[Mike Caldwell]

I am not seeking to add more bass on my system or get deeper bass, got lots of it. Was just curious about enhancers and what they do. Actually it was speaker cabinet builder who had told me short while back that the BBE and Aural Exciters adds better tonal tonal quality to bass.

Personally I think the old school way to put an Eq separately on the bass is as good as anything but question is, does it really make any difference than from having an Eq between the Mixer and Crossover?

You can't get deeper bass from a speaker that can't reproduce deeper bass in the first place.
Your average off shelf decent single 18 is only going down to a useful 40hz give or take a little,
if your bass enhancer box tells it to do 20hz while rocking out things are going to break after a while.

[Helge A Bentsen]

DBX 120A as an fx insert was fun, but it put stress on the drivers.
If you want to rock it and not kill your subs, look at the Waves MaxxBCL.

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