dbx, 1 286s Microphone Preamp & Channel Strip Processor, Silver, 1U (DBX286SV)

I have a shure sm7db hooked into this, which then runs into a scarlet focusrite, and into my pc, and my gosh does it sound incredible.I get radio quality vocals without any post processing. My microphone is fairly decent, but this thing is doing a ton of heavy lifting.I followed the settings listed in another reviewers Amazon review, which I highly recommend, and haven't needed to tweak it since.The raw audio requires next to nothing done to it after the fact, I'm not an audiophile, but it sounds almost perfect to my ears.Using this on calls is phenomenal, it is super crispy, even over most websites trashy audio bitrate.Shure SM7s and their variations are good at blocking out background noise, but with this thing, it's unbelievable. My recording desk is in an unfinished room, with two large fish tanks directly behind it. I always have a dehumidifier running in the room, and usually a fan. My microphone doesnt pick up on a single sound, even in the background while I'm talking, its actually insane.I bought mine for $200, and even at that price I thought it was amazing. Ive seen it go as low as $150. If youre looking for a stellar processor that doesnt cost a grand, go with this thing.

I use this to enhance my voiceover audio for some projects. Considering what it does, it's a pretty great value. It provides phantom power to mics that need it. It's a clean, very low-noise preamp; compressor/limiter; noise gate to reduce breath, mouth and room noise; simple EQ (lo and hi-tone) and even a de-esser. The knobs have a little 'click' as you rotate so you can perfectly gauge where your settings are from one project to another.I patch out into the 'line in' on my USB audio interface and once I've set levels it's a very consistent device. There are days when you need a little warmth and fuzz without any software plugins, or you have a live internet session with a client and you need a little compression from your mic and this does it great!Some people use this for podcasts or game streaming but I don't.Negatives: This is a big boy. It's made for an audio rack and fills out the space entirely with lots of weight. I don't have space for a rack in my small studio space so it sits on a side table. If this weren't so darn bulky I'd consider a second one! I also wish this had a power switch so I have one on the plug itself. If you turn off the phantom power on a mic that uses it, it can start feeding back if you're not careful.Those little annoyances aside, this unit gives great flexibility when I need it for a relatively great price.

As other reviewers have mentioned, this is a solid and professional mic processor.I'm preparing to start doing YouTube videos. However, I'm working from my home, with an less-than-ideal acoustical environment. (I'm an amateur at this and know absolutely NOTHING about audio engineering.) I also use Windows 10 which has really crappy audio drivers: no matter how much I jacked up the mic input volume, my audio was just too low with USB mics that plugged directly into my computer. (It doesn't help that I'm a woman with a relatively soft voice.)After some research, I decided to get a lav mic with an XLR connection and a USB audio adapter. THAT solved my input volume problem, but now any background noise was amplified, including my A/C, room echo and mic hiss. The layout of my room doesn't really allow for sound treatment and nothing in my home is soundproof. No amount of post editing could completely fix it without distorting my voice.Enter the DBX 286s which I bought after seeing reviews on YouTube. It took quite a bit of fiddling and testing the settings, but I've been SUPER HAPPY with the results in testing. The DBX 286s provides plenty of gain and phantom power to my mic, but the standout feature is the expander gate. Background echo/mic hiss is greatly reduced and now my raw audio isn't horrible, which means it's good enough for livestreams. I'm nitpicky and still do some minor editing in Audacity for pre-recorded videos, but live webinars and live Facebook or YouTube videos will sound just fine with virtually no background noise of any kind (except for minor mic hiss only at the highest volume levels).This has solved a MAJOR problem for me: I bought mic processor primarily to eliminate background noise (room echo/mic hiss). This is an OUTSTANDING mic processor and I'm super happy with the results! :)