This is a review and detailed measurements of the dbx 223xs active analog balanced crossover. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $245.
I must say this is a nice and sturdy package for such a bargain price. Controls feel nice as well. Functionality though is confusing given the capability for mono vs stereo. Former provides 3-way crossover whereas the latter 2-way. There is some attempt at clarifying this with duplicate writings but it was hard. Same is reflected in the back:
If you have more patience than I
, I am sure you can figure it out though.
Note: Harman owns dbx. Our company, Madrona Digital, buys some of their product lines but not these. Still, feel free to read any bias in my subjective remarks.
dbx 223xs Measurements
My focus here is level of transparency rather than quantifying filters. So I chose to use high-pass output for testing and set the filter very low so that it wouldn't impact most of the response. Here is our dashboard with input gains adjusted to get unity (which oddly was below 0):
This is very competent. Distortion at nearly -108 dB is very close to transparency. Our SINAD which is sum of noise+distortion drops down a bit due to those power supply spikes:
For 16 bit playback, you still have 6 dB of margin which is good.
Here is the frequency response as set up:
You can see the effect of the 40 Hz high pass. Response is extended past 20 kHz which is good.
Channel separation is well above average:
Baseline noise is rather high as displayed in IMD vs level measurement:
The high-pass filter is impacting this a bit.
We see a typical rise in distortion with frequency although it is mild:
Conclusions
Somehow I expected to see high levels of noise and distortion but did not find much. No, this is not state of the art but clears the bar of 16 bit performance well. If you are using ultra sensitive tweeters and such, you may hear some added hiss but otherwise it should be fine.
While a digital crossover is more perfect, you don't get the instant variability to adjust things as you have here.
I am going to recommend the dbx 223xs. It is a bargain given its build and performance.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
I must say this is a nice and sturdy package for such a bargain price. Controls feel nice as well. Functionality though is confusing given the capability for mono vs stereo. Former provides 3-way crossover whereas the latter 2-way. There is some attempt at clarifying this with duplicate writings but it was hard. Same is reflected in the back:
If you have more patience than I
Note: Harman owns dbx. Our company, Madrona Digital, buys some of their product lines but not these. Still, feel free to read any bias in my subjective remarks.
dbx 223xs Measurements
My focus here is level of transparency rather than quantifying filters. So I chose to use high-pass output for testing and set the filter very low so that it wouldn't impact most of the response. Here is our dashboard with input gains adjusted to get unity (which oddly was below 0):
This is very competent. Distortion at nearly -108 dB is very close to transparency. Our SINAD which is sum of noise+distortion drops down a bit due to those power supply spikes:
For 16 bit playback, you still have 6 dB of margin which is good.
Here is the frequency response as set up:
You can see the effect of the 40 Hz high pass. Response is extended past 20 kHz which is good.
Channel separation is well above average:
Baseline noise is rather high as displayed in IMD vs level measurement:
The high-pass filter is impacting this a bit.
We see a typical rise in distortion with frequency although it is mild:
Conclusions
Somehow I expected to see high levels of noise and distortion but did not find much. No, this is not state of the art but clears the bar of 16 bit performance well. If you are using ultra sensitive tweeters and such, you may hear some added hiss but otherwise it should be fine.
While a digital crossover is more perfect, you don't get the instant variability to adjust things as you have here.
I am going to recommend the dbx 223xs. It is a bargain given its build and performance.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/