dbx equipment from the early 1980s

[PabloSD]

I was talking about old systems from our youth with a friend when I remembered I bought a bunch of dbx gear when I was a young man in the early 1980s. Last night I dug deep down in my storage locker and found all 5 units which have been stored there in the original boxes since about 2002. I didn't take them out and open the boxes as they're covered in dust but I am sure that all 5 components are in near mint condition and all in the original boxes (outer cardboard faded a bit but inner white boxes should be fine) and probably all the manuals are still inside. The storage location is in an underground garage so protected from the elements.

I did some quick online searches and saw that there is still some interest in the dynamic range controller but less so in the other units, although I did find them all for sale on eBay and other places. I realize this gear is dated so I'm not asking about value as I can see the eBay prices which aren't much except for the 3BX. I'm more just seeing if anyone thinks this stuff would be interesting to anyone. I would need to test each unit after so many years of non-use (they've probably not been powered up since the 1990s), but I think they should all be OK electronically and cosmetically should be near mint.

These are the 5 units:

dbx 3BX-DS 3 band dynamic range controller
dbx 2015G Stereo Graphic Equalizer
dbx 120X-DS Subharmonic Synthesizer
dbx 400X Active Program Route Selector
dbx 224X-DS Tape Noise Reduction System

All 5 are "matching"; they are all 19-inch rack mountable and 1U high with the same black design and gold dbx label.

I have no intention of using any of this stuff myself in my current system. So I figure I might as well offload them to someone who might want them. But just posting here to see if there if anyone has any interesting stories, opinions, recommendations etc. about this equipment.

 

[Bone Yard]

Cool stack, it would be fun to mess around with although I'm not an expert on any of it. The only dbx I have are the 228 and dx 5 CD Player. There's definately a market and interest in old equipment and with tapes coming back with their own niche market, this equipment will only go up in value.

dbx and some of the others seem to be much more serious equipment then some of the 70's accessories like reverb (with cool lights) and the Technics Sound Shapers. Were you using them professionally?

 

[PabloSD]

Cool stack, it would be fun to mess around with although I'm not an expert on any of it. The only dbx I have are the 228 and dx 5 CD Player. There's definately a market and interest in old equipment and with tapes coming back with their own niche market, this equipment will only go up in value.

dbx and some of the others seem to be much more serious equipment then some of the 70's accessories like reverb (with cool lights) and the Technics Sound Shapers. Were you using them professionally?

no not professionally at all. I was just a young fool and thought I was getting into high end audio when in fact I had no real clue what I was doing. I think it was more that I thought the gear looked cool. I know I started with the dynamic range controller which is a cool piece of gear, and then the graphic equalizer, and then the noise reduction unit (I was taping a lot back then), and then the subharmonic synthesizer, then I needed the last piece to wire them all together, so I eventually had 5 units.

None of this stuff was that expensive, it must have all been in the sub $400 range I think. dbx was a serious professional audio company but I think was all their foray into the less expensive home audio market for non-professionals.

One of these days I'll get the boxes out and clean them up and check the gear out and take some photos. My wife will kill me though if I bring those dirty dusty boxes into the condo before cleaning them up really well.

 

[duaneage]

I have the same stack and have used it for 30 years. I like the expander and SNR-1 for effect. The EQ works very well too. Prices for these devices are way up there.

The only problem I ever have is the switches have to be cleaned with deoxit from time to time.

 

[jsisk]

There is still a demand/market for most of these units. Ballpark value would be about $800 if sold individually. ($1,000 if you sell the rack ears separately)

The two best sellers are the 3BX-DS and the 400x. The EQ and 224 will be tough sells unless you really lowball them.

 

[PabloSD]

I have the same stack and have used it for 30 years. I like the expander and SNR-1 for effect. The EQ works very well too. Prices for these devices are way up there.

The only problem I ever have is the switches have to be cleaned with deoxit from time to time.

after sitting idle for more than 2 decades some maintenance is probably necessary, although they have been double boxes in the original boxes. Had I known I would have wrapped the units in plastic too. I've never opened anything up before for cleaning or otherwise though.

 

[Bone Yard]

Head to you local guitar store and get a big bottle of DeOxit and FaderLube. Read the huge thread on proper useage and they will probably work great once cleaned. I'm a sucker for all the cool accessories but at the end of the day I barely use any regularly.

 

[sKiZo]

Big fan of the original 3BX ... That's a critical part of my listening pleasure, and all I have to do is hit the bypass button to remind me why.

** Fun fact about the SNR-1 ... It was originally marketed for tape noise reduction, but also does a nice job of cleaning up vinyl. I've got mine in line with an external phono pre-amp, and the difference with and without is quite impressive.

 

[PabloSD]

Big fan of the original 3BX ... That's a critical part of my listening pleasure, and all I have to do is hit the bypass button to remind me why.

** Fun fact about the SNR-1 ... It was originally marketed for tape noise reduction, but also does a nice job of cleaning up vinyl. I've got mine in line with an external phono pre-amp, and the difference with and without is quite impressive.

thanks, it's been really interesting how this old gear is still in use!

 

[twiiii]

I much preferred the DBX 750 professional Decilinear noice reduction unit. But it could be fooled by head bumps in bass frequency response so you had to use Professional decks with great low frequency response and low wow and flutter. So that Meant Scully or later AG or ATR Ampex models. Never tried one with a MR-70. Pre-owned MR-70's were hard to find and we didn't have Amazon or E-bay or the internet back then. Also after seeing an ATR 104 why would I want a MR-70-4? Digital was just around the corner so what would I have done with a 1/2 inch 4 channel machine? You could use a 4 channel DBX 255 as I remember. But it didn't have XLR inputs or out puts and you couldn't decode on the fly while recording. So that meant two model 750's. Digital took away my remote recording business and I didn't want to invest lot of money back then either.

 

[onanysunday]

I had drooled over their various dynamic range expanders at one point, wanting their newest, or most recent model -but was unable to afford it and couldn't justify it. Right now, I have several of their 80's cd players which I think are just incredible for their sound even today considering how old they are. They allow more "tweaking" of the CD sound than any other cd player I've ever seen to this day. I've got three DBX DX5 cd players, so I always have backups, and even one DX3 I found which is pretty rare and was hard to obtain and took awhile to find. However, I still wish I had just one more DBX. The BX1 power amp which looks absolutely amazing.

 

[powerman]

Seen this and heard the same unit at the 1987 CES show at McCormick Center. It was the best amplifier DBX made. Very well built but its cost was pretty high. They did not make many off them as a year or 2 later came out with a lower cost model. I almost bought the display unit at the end of the show but at almost 100 pds and taking the train became a problem.

 

[twiiii]

My DBX 200 became totally intermittent with cheap switches so I trashed it and upgraded from a C-29 to a C-34 V Mcintosh pre-amp which would handle three tape machines and record and playback processor loops and separate record and playback selector switches. It made life so much simpler. I still have and use my DBX Model 119 and DBX 3BX. They are all still working perfectly.

 

[KiM3Ce]

My 3BX is a key play listening to FM at least some of the time. IBOC noise caused by HD radio has made some quiet stations noisy.

The 400 route-selector is great also but the switch issue is real. Thanks on the tip on getting Deoxit from the guitar store!

 

[Mrvintage]

My 3BX is a key play listening to FM at least some of the time. IBOC noise caused by HD radio has made some quiet stations noisy.

The 400 route-selector is great also but the switch issue is real. Thanks on the tip on getting Deoxit from the guitar store!

I’ve been slowly adding to my vintage build over the last couple of years and been very lucky with picking up some very well cared for pieces I just recently picked up a DBX 3bx with rack ears and with the remote both pieces were around $500.00 and just recently serviced.
My inventory
dbx 400 route with rack ears
dbx 20/20 with rack ears
dbx 10/20 with rack ears
dbx 224 with rack ears
dbx 3bx
dbx 31 graphic eq

 

[mfenberg]

I still have a dbx-222 atop my Pioneer RT-701 RR deck! I use it for the ONE dbx encoded tape I have! Back in the 90's, my band recorded in the studio. Once the final mix was complete, the engineer allowed me to bring my 701 into the studio to dub from the master. I chose to use my dbx 222 to keep the dynamics from the original master, which was on 1" tape @ 15ips. After we made the transfer, the engineer patched my deck back into his system for a listen. He was quite surprised at how good it sounded with the dbx encoding!

 

[aeberbach]

Coincidentally I stumbled on this recently - I had this issue back in day.

 

[shstrang]

Cool stack, it would be fun to mess around with although I'm not an expert on any of it. The only dbx I have are the 228 and dx 5 CD Player. There's definately a market and interest in old equipment and with tapes coming back with their own niche market, this equipment will only go up in value.

dbx and some of the others seem to be much more serious equipment then some of the 70's accessories like reverb (with cool lights) and the Technics Sound Shapers. Were you using them professionally?

I have an old dbx 140 type 2 unit. It was used on NAB cart machines for content delivery (mx, spots, jingles..)

 

[simplynuts]

I have a DBX 118 and the passive DBX subwoofer, but not the satellite speakers.