DBX 165 and DBX 165a...difference is...?

[indie]

So the only difference I see is the peak limiter...right? Same sound otherwise?
Thanks

[MJGreene Audio]

Originally Posted by indie

So the only difference I see is the peak limiter...right? Same sound otherwise?
Thanks

Yes on the 165A they put in the "Peak Stop" limiter on the back end. They should have just called it the "Turn this knob and your compressor will fart and sound like shit" knob. I had both before some mofo stole them from me and as long as I didn't turn the threshold of the Peak Stop so that it was doing something they sounded exactly the same.

Michael Greene

[kellyd]

Yeah, except for the so called improvement (hate the peak stop), the 165A is the same. I have 1 165A and 2 165s.

[Mike Tholen]

The Peak Stop on my unit farts too!

IT DOESN'T WORK!

WTF?

Have they been this way from day one?

Anyone remember if they ever worked?

[MJGreene Audio]

Originally Posted by Mike Tholen

The Peak Stop on my unit farts too!

IT DOESN'T WORK!

WTF?

Have they been this way from day one?

Anyone remember if they ever worked?

I have used a number of different units. I bought my 165A new right out of the box. It never worked. I think it was a screwed up design from the start. They Peak Stop portion never had enough headroom to actually deal with the peaks. Great boxes otherwise if your going for that DBX VCA sound but I don't know what marketing idiot thought that would be a good idea!!!

[hubercraft]

Does anyone like it, and if so why?

[paulbystereo]

I'll tell you what I like the 165a for... Vocal distortion, when you want distortion on purpose (like when the lyics are, "I just chopped my arm of aaaarrgh!!!!"). Crank the limiter down, the output gain up, and it's an awesome vocal distortion tool. Pretty different than everything else I use for vocal distortion.

[thenoiseflower]

165A for Snare, Bass, occasional parallel buss shit...either just kissed or totaly fvcked (w/ the Peak stop) its pretty rad.

I'd also say the thing is way sweet on a really well recorded track, like if its not really needing to "control" anything, and your using it more for Tone or Big-ness, its really nice and doesnt take too much away from the source.

[edvdr76]

I have both a 165 and a 165A and they pretty much sound the same exept for that peak stop knob which I never use cause it sounds shitty. I use my 165's for snare, gutiars sometimes. Sometimes I use it in my vocal chain to fuzz up my tracks up a bit. Cool compressor

[indie]

Thanks guys...you rock. I have one on the way to me now.

[dbbubba]

The Peakstop feeture was added on the re-issue models.
The original units didn't have the peakstop circuit.

I believe that they quit making the 165s for quite a few years during the '80s.
I believe they had quit making them by the time the 160x came out.
I pretty much can recall adds in the early '90s when they were announcing the re-issue units with the peakstop.

Other than the peakstop, I believe that they are nearly the same units.

I have always found it odd that they re-issued the 165 and not the 160.
The 160 had more of a "buzz" about it.

Danny Brown

[Jim Williams]

The peak stop circuit is the same as used in the 166. It's a back connected diode clipper, just like in your favorite fuzz tone. It does work ok if the smallest, shortest peak is lightly clipped.

The 165 and 165A are very different inside. First, the VCA. It's not the old discrete transistor array 202 model in the A version. It's an array of 7 that corp 2150 vca's used in the 160X mounted on the module. The resistor scaling is much lower, lowering noise. The control voltage port is scaled differently as well.

The 165 is more like an old 160 to me where the 165A is a quieter, clearer sounding box. THD is much lower in the 165A (.007% THD+noise vs .1%).

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

[MJGreene Audio]

Originally Posted by Jim Williams

The peak stop circuit is the same as used in the 166. It's a back connected diode clipper, just like in your favorite fuzz tone. It does work ok if the smallest, shortest peak is lightly clipped.

The 165 and 165A are very different inside. First, the VCA. It's not the old discrete transistor array 202 model in the A version. It's an array of 7 that corp 2150 vca's used in the 160X mounted on the module. The resistor scaling is much lower, lowering noise. The control voltage port is scaled differently as well.

The 165 is more like an old 160 to me where the 165A is a quieter, clearer sounding box. THD is much lower in the 165A (.007% THD+noise vs .1%).

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

Jim.
When did that change happen? I had both my 165 and 165A apart and they looked identical inside. Perhaps the VCA was packaged the same as the old ones. My 165A was the last batch before they stopped making them for about 3-4 years and then they re-issued them again in the early 90's i think.

Maybe my ears are wacked but mine sounded pretty much exactly the same side by side. I wonder if they changed them drastically after I bought mine.

All the units I used were of the same vintage. About 15-20 units in all and other than those stupid push button switches going bad and causing them to not pass audio they all sounded fairly close to my pair.

Michael Greene

[Jim Williams]

Could be some older A's have the 202 VCA's in them. The reissues use the V8 VCA array with rescaled resistors around the VCA. I really like the last versions as they are very quiet and have good bandwidth and THD specs. Replace the 2150 VCA's in the array with 2180A's and it's even better.

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

[dbbubba]

The 165a that I used looked identical to the dbx165 that I now own.
However, that 165a was a VERY early version of the re-issues because we bought it right after the re-issues came out.
The only difference that I could see at a glance was that the 165a had different/newer looking circuitboard stock.
I didn't study the 165a that hard and I never used them side by side.
I nevr had them both open at once either.

Maybe the original re-issue units were made from existing parts?

Danny Brown