Feature:
There is no individual limiter, but the compressor can be set to limit. There is no individual bypass per channel: if you want the Sonic maximizer, you have to also have the compressor in line, but you can turn the sonic maximizer off.
I/O is 1/4" unbal and XLR plus sidechain TRS loop. The metering has ladders for both input level and gain reduction, but oddly, the gain reduction ladder is all ON by default and the lights turn OFF as gain is reduced. The knobs and build quality is poor, but the chassis is very solid and a pretty shade of red.
Quality:
What finally got the thing sent back is the 60 and 120 cycle hum it generates internally! Putting the hamonic generation of the sonic maximizer on this hum makes it far, far worse. It hummed with any powercord, in any position, with any set of inputs and outputs I tried. The hum would get louder or softer based on the output (makeup gain) setting and whether the sonic maxmimizer was on.
I bought a blemish unit, which I understand to be cosmetic flaws, but perhaps it was a bad one. In which case BBE has to get that unit off the market because I read similar reports on harmony-central. Apparently the wiring is substandard, but I didn't open it up to see. Since these units go for less than the 882i ($200 street vs. $250), but BBE claims it's the same circuit (and it has balanced i/o), they must have cut corners somewhere to also stick a compressor and gate in it.
Desirability:
I sent it back.
Sound:
The promise of this box is that you get a free 882i Sonic Maximizer along with a dbx166-style compressor/gate. Unfortunately, it fails in its promise because of miserable implementation.
The compressor actually works OK on program material, and the Sonic Maximizer can help a dull track, but only up to a setting of 4 or so before it gets too harsh. Running the sonic maximizer in the effects loop of a guitar amp or after some ribbon microphones may be more beneficial.
The compressor was fairly dismal on most individual instruments, including voice. Whether auto mode or hand-set attack and release, it wasn't very pleasant to listen to. Both the RNC and the Drawmer MX-30 (what I have on hand to compare it to) worked far better for those purposes.
Even worse is the gate. It has a very severe release curve, and this means that it pops in and out loudly when it's set to the area of the noise threshold. The gate on the Drawmer MX-30 is vastly better.
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