Regarding Sonic Maximizers

01-17-2008, 01:10 AM

I think that the main beef with them is that they just aren't the "magic for free" that some folks think they are. If the top or bottom end of a PA system's frequency response is lacking, or there are clarity problems overall, then a sonic maximizer is just a band aid. It can help a little bit, but one is far better off fixing the real problem.

You can fake "big boom" to a point - but it really comes from more PA.

You can fake "extended HF response" to a point - but it really comes from better HF drivers and horn designs.

You can phase shift various frequency ranges to make transients sound bigger - but bigger transients really come from more PA.

That's my opinion.

I've never felt that I needed a sonic maximizer. I've always felt that a PA was either designed to do something (or not do it), and that applying more signal processing wasn't actually going to make the PA go outside of its design limits (thought it might fool me and others for a while, to be sure.)