Extensive compressor reviews and FAQ

dbx 1066: I spent a couple of hours directly A/B'ing the 1066 and the 166A. They have the same basic features, but the 1066 is the next tier up from the 166A, and costs twice as much. However the reality is they sound almost identical. The 1066 has attack and release controls (as opposed to the "slow/fast" switch on the 166A), as well as much more LED metering and light-up switches, so it looks both fancier and more intimidating. All that is good for dialing in the exact setting you want, but I actually found myself picking settings that sounded identical to the default attack/release settings of the 166A (in "slow mode"). So for bass, the extra controls may not be necessary or even helpful. As far as the sound quality, they are identical in the lows and mids, but the highs did sound a bit more "present" with the 1066. So in my opinion the 1066 is excellent, but there's not much point to spending the extra money compared to a 166A, unless you are picky about the high frequencies. Be sure to read my notes about the "contour" function in the 166A review. Note that with both models, higher compression ratios seemed to damp the high frequencies. The gate function is a little bit better with the 1066 because you can select the gating ratio, but it's still a bit more obtrusive than I'd like. The "PeakStopPlus" limiter, again, does nothing. I don't know if I just had bad luck and got two dbx units with broken limiters on both channels, or what, but as far as I can tell that function is worthless. However that doesn't stop the unit overall from being an excellent transparent compressor, certainly one of the cleanest and fullest-sounding ones I've tried. It's worth noting that the 1066 runs a bit hot, so you don't want to rack any temperature-sensitive items right on top of it.
 

 
 
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