does anyone else find dbx160's noisy ?

[ollie]

i love my old dbx160's for the same reason as everyone else. kik and snare. but i find them pretty noisy.
A previous owner had the units balanced but i haven't seen any isolating transformers inside so i wonder how much it's really helping. Anyway, i just wanted to ask if anybody might be in the know of how to minimise the hiss that is currently streaming out of these things.

thanks.
Ollie.

[ProTools4]

I use 166a for drums.
I like a small amount of distortion
along with alot of comp for big rock
drums. You can rally hear the room.

The 166A seems to be much quiter then
my 882|16's. IMHO. I would recomend checking
into the 166a. There are discontinued so
find a used one and enjoy the used price.



------------------
"Natorious" Tad Banzuelo
Rockin' SoCal
[email protected]

[Oli P]

It is hard to know what you mean by noisy....they have never been quiet, but not all that noisy.

It is very old technology, and back then they were quiet compared to the tape machines.

They don't bother me when the music is playing, but in passages where the drums don't play, I always mute the channels.

Old dbx 160's just rock....or is it just a thing with us Ollies???

[ollie]

hi Oli P,
when i said noisy i meant they were throwing a hissy fit when the music wasn't playing and even during quiet passages too.

Your right when you say they are old and were reasonably quiet in their day, but i was wondering if, without getting out of hand, there were any mods to hush these bubs down a bit and bring them more into line with current standards.
Maybe it's just inherent in the circuitry and there is nothing i can do about it. If so, fine. I'll live with it, but it does annoy me when the music stops and i become aware (along with everyone else in the room) of just how much noise has been hissing out of the monitors all along.
And before anyone says - if your can't hear it during the song then don't worry about it - i'm concerned about the collective noise floor rising from a growing rack of analogue gear of which the 160 is the main culprit. Maybe not so bad now, but 2 or 3 more nice old comps down the line and i could have a problem.
Maybe if the capacitors were replaced things would clean up a bit. I'll consult a tech and see what they think.


anyway, i appreciate the responses.Thanks.
Ollie.

[Rail Jon Rogut]

Ollie,

I'd check all my gain staging or have a tech check 'em out... I own a pair of 160Vu's and have used many over the years and never found them to be excessively noisy... what are your settings on the unit (gain, ratio)?

I recently used a pair at a studo.. one of them would add distortion whenever it crossed the threshold... but it wasn't noisy :^)

Regards.

Rail

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Recording Engineer

[The Doubter]

ollie,

I have a pair and one is noiser than the other but sound great. previous posts are correct you need to find the right balance
with gainstage especially the output. If you try and update caps it could change the character of the compressor.
Back in the day of live sound it was never a problem!

rock!