Need some help dudes! Bbe 362 sonic maximizer????

[Rupe]

I'm curious, how do you know this? I'm asking because I would like to know and I have yet to see a properly executed analysis. I suppose I could buy one and tear it apart myself.

I use my ears, not my eyes

[axe dude]

Regardless if the analysis is accurate or not, your ears should tell you that the Sonic Maximizer is a waste of money.

Man this thread is becoming a Massive Wealth of Info! Some of you Dudes have the Technical Skillz for sure! Now that I have both units I will say the MXR 6 BAND is very good & it does the job. The BBE 362 it works but let's just say it's not that "Awesome" of a product & I would not run right out & drop some coin on it. I would put the dough elsewhere in a E.Q. Etc. I had a Buddy who let me borrow this one to see if it's what I was looking for. What I found it to do for my RG100ES so far is to make the Sound/Tone of my Kelly sound Crystal Clear & it also adds a little Boost to it. I am still messing with it.....

[javert]

I use my ears, not my eyes

Ehm, okay....?

[javert]

Man this thread is becoming a Massive Wealth of Info! Some of you Dudes have the Technical Skillz for sure! Now that I have both units I will say the MXR 6 BAND is very good & it does the job. The BBE 362 it works but let's just say it's not that "Awesome" of a product & I would not run right out & drop some coin on it. I would put the dough elsewhere in a E.Q. Etc. I had a Buddy who let me borrow this one to see if it's what I was looking for. What I found it to do for my RG100ES so far is to make the Sound/Tone of my Kelly sound Crystal Clear & it also adds a little Boost to it. I am still messing with it.....

You know, even that video shows it does something, so if that something is what you're looking for then by all means... What pisses people off is probably that it doesn't really do what they claim or for the reasons they claim. And you could achieve similar effects using cheaper units that don't rely on black magic.

[Rupe]

Ehm, okay....?

Where did I lose you?

[javert]

Where did I lose you?

Sorry, it was just that strong assertion you made that made me think you actually had some evidence aside from "I think I heard it". How silly of me.

[xenophobe]

Regardless of how accurate his methodology was, his findings were spot on...that's exactly what the unit does to your signal.

Well, his methodology is very one sided. The BBE is also a spatializer isn't it? ...similar to fake surround found on many other products. That's actually somewhat complex modeling that hasn't been factored into the linked video results.

Either way, it's still a gimmick. Some people got them to sound really nice, others, it's just like that gain or presence knob that is just pushed too high. Whether or not it will work for you... that's up to you just like as with any effects processing equipment.

[javert]

Well, it appears that it's just a 3-band EQ, so it can't do much harm either. I understand people giving it hate due to the amount of marketing bullshit (and the cost), but there is little reason to hate it from a technical point of view. Okay, one thing to severely dislike is that the bypass (effect off) doesn't result in a flat response.

[Rupe]

Sorry, it was just that strong assertion you made that made me think you actually had some evidence aside from "I think I heard it". How silly of me.

Try listening instead of reading and perhaps you could answer all of your own questions. I know it frequently seems like a foreign idea these days to actually listen to audio equipment but give it a try...you may be amazed at the results. Report back!

[javert]

Try listening instead of reading and perhaps you could answer all of your own questions. I know it frequently seems like a foreign idea these days to actually listen to audio equipment but give it a try...you may be amazed at the results. Report back!

I carry out listening tests both formally and informally through my work, and you'd be suprised how many times people fool themselves into hearing differences that aren't actually there (there is an auditory equivalent of the placebo effect, various illusions, etc.) or how bad some people are at detecting differences. People don't even answer the same thing when you repeat an experiment with small differences, even just seconds apart. All this is well-documented in the psychoacoustics literature. And that's even with trained listeners. That's why great care is taken to randomize things due to order effects (people tend to report different results depending on whether you present A before B or the other way around), performing tests blindly (i.e., you don't know what you're listening to), etc. For all we know, you simply might not be able to detect the differences due to years of exposure to high SPLs (i.e., hearing loss) or you performed the test under conditions where it's not possible to detect them.

[axe dude]

You know, even that video shows it does something, so if that something is what you're looking for then by all means... What pisses people off is probably that it doesn't really do what they claim or for the reasons they claim. And you could achieve similar effects using cheaper units that don't rely on black magic.

Very True Obe One!

[Rupe]

I carry out listening tests both formally and informally through my work, and you'd be suprised how many times people fool themselves into hearing differences that aren't actually there (there is an auditory equivalent of the placebo effect, various illusions, etc.) or how bad some people are at detecting differences. People don't even answer the same thing when you repeat an experiment with small differences, even just seconds apart. All this is well-documented in the psychoacoustics literature. And that's even with trained listeners. That's why great care is taken to randomize things due to order effects (people tend to report different results depending on whether you present A before B or the other way around), performing tests blindly (i.e., you don't know what you're listening to), etc. For all we know, you simply might not be able to detect the differences due to years of exposure to high SPLs (i.e., hearing loss) or you performed the test under conditions where it's not possible to detect them.

I'm with you...we're saying the same thing more or less, just coming at it from different perspectives. I wholeheartedly agree that people will talk themselves into hearing a difference if they know what that difference is supposed to be, which is why I advocate simply listening. I get your point as well though...some people simply can't listen objectively or may have actual hearing deficiencies. Probably no right answer...depends on who's doing the listening.

[javert]

I'm with you...we're saying the same thing more or less, just coming at it from different perspectives. I wholeheartedly agree that people will talk themselves into hearing a difference if they know what that difference is supposed to be, which is why I advocate simply listening. I get your point as well though...some people simply can't listen objectively or may have actual hearing deficiencies. Probably no right answer...depends on who's doing the listening.

Yeah, and until there's some kind of hard evidence (systematic listening test, e.g., with a panel of experts, an analysis of the circuit or an attempt at system identification), then this bullshit with what this and many hifi products do will go on and on and suckers will keep buying super-expensive cables that aren't anything special. It's too easy to simply dismiss a single listener (and often rightfully so). Moreover, I find it quite saying that all these companies never, ever publish any listening tests themselves. If their products were so great, it shouldn't be hard to show. When I was googling for analyses of the Sonic Maximizer, I found threads like this one on most of the major guitar and music forums. Half of the posts repeats the mumbo jumbo from BBE's ads and the other half says it's a bunch of bullshit, yet most often neither offer anything but subjective opinions/experiences and are scarce on details. Anyways, I am personally quite convinced by that schematic I linked to earlier

[Hellbat]

The pedal version is true bypass.

[Devotee]

javert: