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Vintage threads from the first ten years

Anyone looked inside a BBE Maximizer?

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10/25/1999 8:37 AM

Anyone looked inside a BBE Maximizer?

I remember listening to one and it seemed to
sweeten distortion tones -- maybe by adding and
removing certain harmonics.. seemed to make the
sound a little sharper as well.. more presence..
I remember someone commenting its just a glorified
compressor.. anyone hooked one of these to a
spectrum analyzer and checked out what it really
does? the explanation on their page bbesound.com
sounds like malarkey..

10/31/1999 1:31 PM

David,
I have one in my rack that I run most stuff through for recording. It has a very slight effect, but it DOES have an effect. The way I understand it, and I may be wrong---this is what I was told--is that it shifts higher freqencies slightly forward to make them stand out in a mix. (And wouldn't that actually be DELAYING lower frequencies...since you can't shift something ahead of when it happens?) This is opposed to an Aphex Aural Exciter, which adds harmonics(and distortion?) to do it's thing. A lot of people, I guess, assume they did the same thing.
If that is true, I wondered, why would one want to run a PA mix through one of these things, since the highs beam out faster,(and ahead already ,slightly) than the lows anyway?
Anyone?

10/31/1999 1:48 PM
Brad	Gee, I just read their explanation, and it seems they are talking phase shift within a single speaker. But now I'm confused. In a system with, say,a bi-amped high-freq speaker, wouldn't running an entire mix through one of these cause the phase to be weird? I'm gonna stop before I get more confused.

10/31/1999 6:22 PM

I always thought that they were implying that they were delaying highs. Because lows travel slower than highs, I always thought they were trying to do something to correct the transmission delay of lows somewhat akin to what some studio monitors do with the recessed tweeter - so that highs would hit you at the same time as lows.

I don't know. One of my friends says it's great. I never got a chance to try it.

10/31/1999 10:56 PM
Brad	Well, I'm not sure either. I got one for $30 at a yard sale, and have used it ever since. I just twist the knobs 'till it sounds good. It's a useful gadget to have around....just don't expect a major ear-gasm, because its effect is real, but slight. You may think that you are just playing with a tone knob at first.

10/31/1999 11:57 PM

I have had one of these for quite a few years, well over 10. It works great, I would not copy a cassette without it. It seems to clear up the mids and highs while adding a little air. The BBE I use has a bass boost for each channel that is supposed to offset the "boosted highs" effect.

I had to open up mine when I got it, it was dead out of the box! The center tap of the power transformer wasn't grounded, so much for their final inspection! Grounded the CT and it has worked fine ever since. If I recall, most of the circuitry was in one large proprietary IC.

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