No doubt about it, dbx made some of the best affordable compressors available in the 1970's and in later years. My favourite is the 160, half rack width with a VU sytle meter. So easy to use and as it was automatic there was no evidence of pumping.
The dbx 160A replaced the 160, it is a full rack width and with led metering rather than the VU meter found on the 160, like the 160 the 160A has automatic attack and release so all the engineer has to adjust is the Threshold, Compression ratio and make up gain
dbx Say :
The dbx® 160A is a legendary dbx® 160 family of compressor/limiters. The same classic sound, easy set-up and no compromise metering is now married to an improved signal path and stronger chassis design. The result is industry standard compressor/limiter which is digital-ready and road tough.
Featuring switch-selectable OverEasy® and Hard Knee compression curves along with extremely wide-ranging threshold, ratio and output controls, the dbx 160A is up to any task. True RMS level detection provides the most natural-sounding dynamics processing available, from subtle compression to "brick wall" peak limiting
Sounds about right.
Watch what Zed Martin has to say on YouTube
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