Anyone familiar with the Symetrix SX (208)?

[johnpitcairn]

Apologies for the cross-post (also in geekslutz):

I have recently acquired a used Symetrix SX208 stereo compressor, which seems like it might sound quite nice for the price. Beefy, but not distorted. The unit is not, however, in the advertised condition. "Works perfectly" - yeah, right.

At the very least, I'll need to clean/replace pots. Feh.

More annoyingly, the three threshold under/equal/over LEDs seem to be injecting low-level background buzz/hiss into the audio circuit when they switch. If there's a little jittering involved, that makes it worse.

Is this a known issue with these units? Given they were aimed at broadcast applications, I wouldn't think so. Or might the LEDs just need replacing? The "gain reduction" LEDs do not seem to inject any noise.

I can probably live with just disabling the LEDs, if it's the LED itself causing the noise (ie not some part of the supporting circuit). The gain reduction LEDs and my ears provide sufficient feedback - but if salvaging the threshold indicators is possible, I'd like to attempt that.

Any advice appreciated.

John Pitcairn

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