View Full Version : BeachTek DXA-8 LEDs indicate ouput voltage, not limiting


David Ennis
February 25th, 2005, 01:50 PM
A lot of people believe as I did that when you turn on the DXA-8's limiters, flashing of the LEDs indicates limiting activity. That's what the instruction sheet enclosed with the unit says. But this is not quite incorrect. What they indicate is that the output voltage of the DXA-8 is in the range of 4 to 9 milivolts. Limiting may or may not be taking place in the background. The LEDs light dimly at an output of about 4 mV, and maximum brightness occurs at about 9 mV. I find this to be a very useful indication--much more so than the idea that limiting is going on.

For more details, see my earlier post, "Using the BeachTek DXA-8 with the GL2." I was concerned that DXA-8 owners that don't have GL2s might like this information but not read the other post.

Another thing I found was that mid range on the gain controls is the zero gain postion. That may sound obvious, but I had not assumed it to be true because the gain range of the unit is lopsided to the plus side (-10dB to +15dB according to the spec).