DBX Home Audio Equipment

[JoeMae416]

Trying to find out the best way to hook up the following equipment:
Any help with a diagram or photo/video would be well appreciated…..
400x - 10/20 - 4bx - 120x - 224x

 

[Blue Shadow]

Let's see you have

A signal routing box
an eq box
a dynamic range expander box
a subharmonic synthesizer box
a dbx disc signal processor needed for playback of these these records or a two way, record and play, tape noise reduction system.

All of these want to use the Tape Monitor loop on your main unit which is unspecified so I don't know what it is or if it has real tape monitor loops. Then I look back at your posts and in March you posted your rig with a picture of a tall stack of black gear and a big tape deck. Still no mention of what you have.

That said, I kinda figure you have a real tape monitor circuit and you have that dbx 400x that you will need to get the most out of all those boxes.

Get the manual for the 400x from hifiengine and use it to help you set up the rig. I'm not familiar with all the capabilities of the 400x but it is designed to do exactly what you want, hook all that stuff up to your rig and use it.

I would hit the report button in your post and ask a mod to move this to Solid State as that will get more eyes on it.

 

[JoeMae416]

Let's see you have

A signal routing box
an eq box
a dynamic range expander box
a subharmonic synthesizer box
a dbx disc signal processor needed for playback of these these records or a two way, record and play, tape noise reduction system.

All of these want to use the Tape Monitor loop on your main unit which is unspecified so I don't know what it is or if it has real tape monitor loops. Then I look back at your posts and in March you posted your rig with a picture of a tall stack of black gear and a big tape deck. Still no mention of what you have.

That said, I kinda figure you have a real tape monitor circuit and you have that dbx 400x that you will need to get the most out of all those boxes.

Get the manual for the 400x from hifiengine and use it to help you set up the rig. I'm not familiar with all the capabilities of the 400x but it is designed to do exactly what you want, hook all that stuff up to your rig and use it.

I would hit the report button in your post and ask a mod to move this to Solid State as that will get more eyes on it.

Hello, the equipment I’m using is: Nikko Pro Series. I do have a tape loop, in fact two of them with the preamp I’m using (Nikko Beta 20). I have downloaded the manual from hifi engine. In fact, I’ve downloaded all of the manuals for each component. They give “demonstrations” in the manual and on top of the 400x, I have hooked them up accordingly by the diagrams and having issues with 2 components (4bx & 10/20).

I’m looking for someone that’s using the same equipment to see if I can get a video of their hook up to compare it with mine.

Thanks for your help and info….

 

[Blue Shadow]

You can show pics of your set up and explain it. Folks here know how to hook stuff up.

But you have issues with the 4bx and the Eq but you don't say what the issues are. This community has hundreds of years experience with stereo gear and all you have to do is type in some info to get answers.

 

[JoeMae416]

Ok, I hooked up all of my DBX components to my system. When I engage all of the sound processors the (4bx - 10/20 EQ - 120x) they only work with certain buttons are pressed but the 4bx don’t work at all no matter what buttons are pressed. This is why I’m trying to find someone that has all of these components hooked up so I can ask for a photo of each component and how the cables are connected.

its to complicated to explain and I’m new to dbx.

 

[Blue Shadow]

You are correct, it is too complicated. You have all the signal processors and most folks might have only one or two.

Have you used each device individually to verify its performance and learned how to use it?

I don't have that pile of processors or a dbx 200/400 to hook them all up so I can't really help getting all of them hooked up in sequence working together. But if you were to post pics of your wiring someone might notice an issue.

Again for more eyes on the topic you should ask a mod to move this post to solid state by using the report button in your first post.

 

[JoeMae416]

So I was using the 10/20 EQ, 4BX, and 120x and all worked fine. Then I got the 224x and 400x and thats when it all went south from there. I’m thinking of not using the 400x and going back to the original way I had it hooked up. Reading through the 400x manual, they tell and show you different options on how to hook it all up. It really is easy but for some reason its not all working correctly. ‍
But thank you anyways for your help. I appreciate it….

 

[twiiii]

I had the DBX tape switcher Box, the 224, and still have my 3 BX and 119. The tape switcher box with its cheap controls was a pain, so I trashed it and traded my C-29 on a C-34 V Mcintosh to replace. All the LP's were dubbed to Cd so the 224 was given away after words. My thoughts about DBX are controversial. Even their professional stuff uses cheap controls So I shave been using UREI instead for all these wears. EQ's, crossovers, limiters and compressors when needed. But even Urei stuff after 50 years can have issues...

 

[MRL_Audio]

I have a healthy collection of dbx LPs and use a 224 in my system to support that. Playing a dbx encoded LP for the first time was one of the few time in the hobby that my jaw was on the floor. I just couldn’t get over the noiseless sound floor and the incredible sound quality. Not all dbx encoded LPs do that, there are some dogs in the bunch, but generally, for a relatively small investment the improvement is quality can be amazing.

 

[krautmaster]

I used one of their Dynamic Range Expanders but it really wasn't worth the trouble, I just bought a more powerful amplifier that didn't need all the gimmicks to sound good. Lots of people I worked with on Guam in the 80's (while in the USAF) used them on their cheap "starter" rack systems that they played as they slowly paid off their top of the line equipment.

 

[nakmandan]

I've got nearly the same dbx equipment- 14/10, 224X, 400X, 3BX-DS and 120X. First off, if all of the components work properly by themselves, I will say the 400X probably needs to have all of the switches cleaned as they can be a show stopper when they are dirty. Second, there is a specific order some of the equipment needs to be connected to the 400X in order to not interfere with each other and the 400X manual talks about that. Third, even for me, this amount of processors going through a 400X and then one of my pre-amp tape loops gets really complicated! I need to have a drawing of how everything is hooked up to have any chance of getting everything to work. To be quite honest, the 400X is just too damn complicated for me to use with every single I/O jack being used and the 400X being maxed out. Three tape machines are pretty straight forward but when you start getting into the 400X's Copy Master side and all of the buttons on the right side, things get out of control quickly! I actually took it out and got a 200X. Not as versatile but a whole lot easier to figure out! And honestly, the 3BX-DS is the only one that I actually use all the time. Love it! The 14/10 is on all of the time but its always set flat, not in the audio path and just acting as a cool light show. The 120X hasn't been connected to my Yamaha sub-woofer yet and the 224X has never been used since I have no dbx vinyl (yet) and with top of the line Nakamichi tape decks, Dolby B/C is plenty fine for me. It's situations like these when I struggle with the purist, minimalist approach of source > amp > speakers vs lots of gizmos and cool looking stuff that really isn't needed.

 

[jhaan92]

My usage of dbx is fairly similar to what the OP has, albeit I have the 3BX-III instead of the 4BX, and a different equalizer. The most complicated item is indeed the 400X, most specifically with patching in the 224x. Personally, if you are not using the noise reduction unit (224X), then you probably won't have a need for the 400X.

There are a number of differing opinions as to the order of the signal path through the processors, but in my own stereo, my order goes as follows: EQ to 3BX-III to 120X.

As for the 400X, you will need to directly hook up your cassette deck (or decks - it will accept up to 3) to the 400x in order for the 224X to do it's job. Even I had a bit of a fight getting it set up correctly, even with the patch bay diagram on the top of the unit. Once it is set up though, it does work quite well.

 

[duaneage]

I daisy chained my boxes starting with the 3bx, then the 2015 eq, and finally the snr1. By hooking them into the tape loops on each box the signal goes through them in that order and back out.
I use the 120DS between the preamp and amp. It's also an electronic crossover.

I have 2 440xg switchers. One is for the dbx gear the other is for 3 other expanders I play with from time to time. I have the two 400 xg boxes daisy chained as well. I also added 4 tape decks and 2 computers as sources. The 224 goes on one 400xg for the reel to reel and my 222 goes on the other for dbx disk decoding.

I mapped it all out and made custom length cables to each device.

 

[jsmiddleton4]

I have been a dbx guy for decades. Have let it go. I have one dbx album, Spyro Gyra, left to sell. Back in the day I even had dbx car cassette/radio. It was a Panasonic with very cool orange back lighting. Just sold my Onkyo TX-85 with dbx built into the receiver. Holding on to my Sansui 990R tape deck. Its too unique to sell.

DBX for me had gotten too complicated and costly.

Reading several of the posts made me laugh. No wonder cd’s kicked analog’s behind. And it’s no wonder streaming is kicking cd’s behind. Probably could add kicking FM’s radio behind.