Any post on the DBX 160SL "Blue Max" Compressor

Is there a post on the DBX 160SL compressor/limiter? I saw one advertised and was surprised on the specs that were given. Is this a dud or workhorse? And does it shine in any particular area such as "great on vocals" or it "handles that kick drum" & etc. Any opinions?

 

for me it is a workhorse. i am using it for years now . 160 sl is great on drums, vocals, bass, stereo bus.....everything . now there is 162sl, which is supposed to be even better.

 

It is great unit and enough of a real workhorse that I own two of them. They work well on everything including sub-bus, and mix bus.

And the brand new 162SL (purple series) is NOT a upgrade but rather a slightly slimmed down version and a cheaper unit.

 

The 160SL is NO dud! I love it on just about everything.

 

I've been looking into this one as well. There were apparently two versions of this comp - the 160S and the 160SL. Anyone know if the 'L' designation was for "limiter"?

 

I believe the SL has a slightly revised circuit. There was a re-occuring problem with the 160S so once this was discovered, the company made the SL version with the corrected circuitry. Any S can be repaired and upgraded to SL with a little work. There was some talk of this over at Techtalk. You should check it out for more details.

 

I noticed on Paul Mc Cartney's last tour, FOH had 12 160SL's! Now thats 24 cannels of 160SL, its supposed to be the modern revival of the old 160vu. Thats a statement of roadworthyness, sound quality, and versatilty. Did notice however that on the main vocal inserts three ADL compressors, ther mono (LA2A) clone.

 

Thanks for the info Tom. Did a search for any mention of it over at TT but it must have scrolled off as I didn't find anything. No matter, I'd probably be getting the SL version anyway.

 

The 160S is obsolete. There was a few issues with 160S. One was a heat realted problem, one was that the VCA's would go bad. The big difference in the 160S to the 160SL is in the way it affects the manual mode Attack/Release timing circuit. When auto mode it on, it makes no difference. The advantage of the upgrade to SL is that it prevents distortion at short release settings in the manual mode.