The DBX-5BX-DS MAGIC box

[jbeary]

Throwing this out there; the 5BX is made of lodestone and sprinkled with fairy dust. I'm a fortune new owner of what seems to be a delightful addition and I'm kinda blown away after about ten minutes with it. I really expected it to sound more like an old school 3BX, not so. This little gem opens up jazz like a hot knife through butter. So far so good. Also got past a side of Teaser and the Firecat and Moondance. I was very suprised at the way the transitions can work together to bring out very detailed background vocals so much so I had to get up and a/b the music and then listen through headphones. It does what it does so subtly I'm simply amazed it's got to be all trickery. The original 3BX is nothing like this hunk of smoke and mirrors. I'm afraid to take the lid off because I'm sure I'd find one small transformer and a chip to run all the pretty lights. They can't possibly make stuff this good, can they?

 

[hambone.11]

Congrats on the 5bx I almost bought that amp 30 years ago. That thing is an amazing sounding amp. I ended up buying the carver which is a very very good amp but not the 5bx. Back then I wanted a matched sys so I went all carver.

 

[w1jim]

Except it ain't an amp - it's a fancy schmancy 5 band dynamic range expander.
Hardly purist, but who cares - it does nice stuff

 

[hambone.11]

Woops, my bad, like I said it's been 30 years. I feel stupid now. LOL whichever dbx amp it was was really nice.

 

[Lesterbest]

Beware too much expansion will make them breath. In the wrong hands, over expansion might send the drivers to spkr cemetary.

 

[Basspig]

Here's what's inside a 5BX-DS that I have on my bench now, for those who are curious.