DBX 286 S Reviews

There is no real contender in this price range

I have been working as a voiceover and producer for a number of years now. For the price, there is no real contender to match ease of use, reliability and build quality. Even some higher priced units aren't as good as this all round.

I recently produced an entire audiobook using this preamp and won quite a prestigious award for the production. Granted I used a lot of VST also (Fab Filter mostly) and other good production techniques, but this unit just gives so much confidence to the performer listening to themselves live. You know what you are going to get with it and you know where you stand with it.

Ignore people saying the tubes are no good. Dig deeper and you will find people who replaced the tubes with "better" ones who eventually reverted back to the stock Chinese tubes. If you are just doing VO for commercials and some games etc. then this is more than good enough, in fact it's brilliant for that. Yes there is no power switch, but it's designed to be rack mounted with a sequenced power conditioner (if you haven't got a power conditioner yet.. please get one and protect your gear.. Furman are good, start there). Get a rack while you're at it.. you're in the audio rabbit hole now and the DBX is a great way to begin the fall!

Great overall, I will probably keep it till I start spending in the high thousands of dollars for preamps.

A Must have for sm7b

This pre-amp is a radio station classic. The price is unbeatable for the quality it delivers. Use is on dynamic mic such as SM7B or RE-20 and you will get an amazing sound.

dbx

For the price/quality ratio it's a bargain!! only comment would be intensity the gain has on the module, produces a very nasally type of sound when pushed too much but other than that no complaints!

Quality product

Ordered another one just because I loved the first one I bought a few years ago

From Experience

Got this so because i did not wanted to upgrade my interface. The quality for the money, really pretty good, but if you want something more i think you can find better solutions, main downside for me was a hissing noise from technical standpoint which i couldn't remove. I think this works better for live audio than recordings.

Perfect

Does the job perfectly!

Awesome mic pre

I bought the DBX 286 S for radio broadcasting purposes and it's awesome to give my voice the presence it needs to be heard between all the audio elements we use on air. Really great and affordable.

Best Mic Pre for every dolar we spend

Cost effective, i believe this is matter. 286s will do much more than the money we spend on it. so, it will not go wrong with this 286s

Transformer noise

When doing recordings, having little background noise is an important aspect. This unit is humming both with and without any DC filter on the AC line. The functionality of it is good for what you pay for. But the hum is unacceptable. It didn't hum straight out of the box, but after some weeks of use it suddenly started to hum. And it just kept doing that. I can't stand listening to that hum all day. If you use this in close proximity to where you are, then this may be an issue. If you have it far away. The hum may not bother you.

Great quality for the price, but beware of the transformer hum

The device works great, but the power supply of the unit makes a very annoying sound. It does not affect the output signal, but it can be picked up by a good condenser mic (and your ears) if you're less than two meters from it. Pity, because otherwise it's a great product, but I have to send mine back.

A must for recording

I use this in an active home studio to manage a vocal mic. It adds that "pro studio" feel to the vocals and enables me to manage many different types of vocalist (shouty to breathy). It lives in cohabitation with an Apollo x8, and I find less of a need to apply Apollo filters to the vocal, which is freeing. It's a great value for the money.

All in one

I love this product. I used 5 years. Nice performance at this price.

Awesome unit. Perfect for a small home studio or a podcast. The only thing I have to complain about is the weird controls on the the compressor. No Threshold or Ratio, but instead Drive and Density. I can never remember which does what.

Can't go wrong

This has to be my best improvement in my home studio.

It all checks out for me. The quality, the build quality, all the features and at what price you can get all that.

My vocal recordings went from boxy, noisy and all over the place to clean, subtle compressed, loud enough.

Of course the microphone also plays a big part in the overall quality of the sound, but I'm using a fairly cheap MXL 440.

I already can get a pristine sound out of my vocal chain.

I can only imagine what an microphone upgrade can add to this...

excellent product for DBX 100% recommend!!

Great Mikrofon Prozessor

I bought this to engage it with my Presonus Studio 1824. It works well, however, if I record voices directly to my Presonus is obvious that sound quality is way better. This processor has great features such as de-ess, compressor, limiter, etc I can say this processor is better suited for voice and post-cast, for recording singing is OK but not optimal due you lose some audio quality from the sound interface, overall I like this hardware and for the price I highly recommend it.

Does all of the basics well for a good price

I purchased this to pair with a Rode Procaster and I have used it with a Sure SM7B. Overall the sound quality is pretty good but I think the EQ tilt section is just ok so I bypass it and add EQ in post.

The Compressor works very well, and when triggering -20db it doesn't sound too compressed.

The Noise Gate is also very good and produces very few unwanted artifacts when opening and closing.

You'll love this thing

Years ago I decided I wanted this pre, but through unforeseen circumstances I never got to buy it. Since then, I have upgraded my signal chain from a 1st gen Scarlett 2i2 to a Clarett. As I am starting a new production I thought: what the hell, just buy it. At this price you really can't go wrong.

And you can't. I have been using it for two day now and I must say: I'm very impressed. We use it for the vocal tracks on singer/songwriter music and the artist is so much more comfortable using this then going 'dry' into he Clarett (using the Rode NT1000 or the Audio Technica AT 2035). It eliminates background hum, airplanes and other stuff. The compressor tightens the vocals in a very musical way. I give his voice a very subtle boost in the lows, which brings his 'chest' sound up just a notch - brilliant.

Don't overdo it as driving this unit too high gives strange effects.

In conclusion: I always thought that the way to get a better sound is through better microphones and/or AD conversion. This is true, but the power of this nifty unit made me overthink this. So, if your vocals sound too thin or dull to your ears, you might stick to your present signal chain and invest in this DBX thingy instead of buying other mics.

4 instead of 5 stars for the hum the transformer in the unit produces. I have the same thing with my Kawai piano. I'll have to live with that. And the expander/gates filters it out anyway.

Amazing little box

I use this DBX for vocals, and it's pretty amazing. It has greatly improved the quality of my takes on the way in (less processing needed during mixing). It's a bit hard to get the right settings, but once you get the hang of it, you probably won't want to record without it. There's a gate, a compressor, an EQ, a de-esser, the whole deal!

The most amazing voice proccesor and not only...

I have bought 2 of them a couple of month ago.. and now I am, yet, about to buy another 2 for my radio station. I used them not only on my radio station but in my recording studio as well. They are amazing, the sound that comes out of this preamp is amazing, clean and clear and such a good punch...