DBX 286s | Microphone Pre-Amp Processor
286s | dbx Professional Audio | English (US)
286s | dbx Professional Audio | English (US)
286s | dbx Professional Audio | English (US)
286s | dbx Professional Audio | English (US)
in 32 offers
The lowest price for DBX 286s | Microphone Pre-Amp Processor right now is $212.35 at MusicStoreLive.com, compared across 16 retailers.
The all-time low was $168.03 on 10 May 2026 — today's price is 26% above the lowest ever. It has been notably cheaper before — worth setting a price alert.
Prices last updated 3 June 2026.
Last updated at 03/06/2026 07:38:47
dbx 286s Microphone Preamp/Channel Strip (Open Box)
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dbx 286s Microphone Preamp/Channel Strip
Dbx 286s Microphone Preamp Channel Strip Processor Working Tested
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Dbx 286s Mic Pre-amp Processor 286 S Microphone Dbx De-esser Japan
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Dbx 286s Microphone Preamp Channel Strip Processor Working Tested
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Dbx 286s Microphone Preamp Channel Strip Processor Phantom Power
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Dbx 286s Microphone Preamp Channel Strip Processor Phantom Power
Delivery $16.72
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Dbx 286s Microphone Pre-amp Processor
Delivery $126.59
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[domestic Regular Product] Dbx Channel Strip 286s
Delivery $144.40
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Dbx 286s Microphone Preamp/channel Strip W/ Cable
Delivery $118.34
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originally posted on guitarcenter.com
There's really nothing else like it. Simply put, the most versatile all-in-one voice processor / preamp on the market. A truly professional product, thousands of broadcast radio stations around the world trust the 286s to make their on-air talent sound amazing. The idea that you can find gear of this quality for a few hundred bucks is mind boggling. You can quite literally achieve any sound your looking for, ever in untreated environments. Broadcasters, podcasters, VO artists, narrators... anyone who works with a microphone needs one of these. Sounds fantastic with my EV RE320. I could spend an entire day trying to describe why the 286s is so great, but you really need to hear it to appreciate what it can do for you. Thankfully there are dozens of review / demo ... MoreThere's really nothing else like it. Simply put, the most versatile all-in-one voice processor / preamp on the market. A truly professional product, thousands of broadcast radio stations around the world trust the 286s to make their on-air talent sound amazing. The idea that you can find gear of this quality for a few hundred bucks is mind boggling. You can quite literally achieve any sound your looking for, ever in untreated environments. Broadcasters, podcasters, VO artists, narrators... anyone who works with a microphone needs one of these. Sounds fantastic with my EV RE320. I could spend an entire day trying to describe why the 286s is so great, but you really need to hear it to appreciate what it can do for you. Thankfully there are dozens of review / demo videos to be found. Just google "dbx 286s setup" and prepare to be amazed!
originally posted on sweetwater.com
This unit is amazing at getting the best possiable sound out of your vocals rather recording or live sound. It has the perfect lineup of all the vocal processing one could ask for in a single unit. I use it for live DJ vocal applications but have used one in voice over applications as well and it makes a huge difference. I would highly recommend for any one looking to have to more control over your vocals. I have several Dbx units from EQ , X-Over, etc and have been very impressed with them all.
originally posted on bhphotovideo.com
I purchased this in feb 2021. After one week of use, i noticed the gain lowering by itself. it would lower to the point of silence. I would have sent it back to B&H but I didnt actually open the box for a few weeks after purchase. So I contact Harman and was instructed to take it to an authorized repair service in my local area. since it was under warranty I did not have to pay. THe repair center noticed that there were several places on the board that were not soldiered properly. so they touched it up and tested for a few days. All was fine and i used it for the rest of the year. shortly thereafter, the exact problem with the gain returned. So I took it back to the repair center (still under warranty) and they have informed me that the problem is unfixable. They ... MoreI purchased this in feb 2021. After one week of use, i noticed the gain lowering by itself. it would lower to the point of silence. I would have sent it back to B&H but I didnt actually open the box for a few weeks after purchase. So I contact Harman and was instructed to take it to an authorized repair service in my local area. since it was under warranty I did not have to pay. THe repair center noticed that there were several places on the board that were not soldiered properly. so they touched it up and tested for a few days. All was fine and i used it for the rest of the year. shortly thereafter, the exact problem with the gain returned. So I took it back to the repair center (still under warranty) and they have informed me that the problem is unfixable. They also say that Harman is out of stock on this item. The repair center has several of these units in line waiting to be fixed/replaced. According to the shop, one person in front of me has been waiting 7 months. Not sure if its the same issue. All in all this unit was great when it worked. It just didn't work for long. Did the people in my area just get the bad ones? I see they are in stock on B&H but I am skeptical on a repurchase. And I cant give this a high rating.
| Finish | Silver |
| Year | 2010s |
dbx 286s Microphone Preamp/Channel Strip (Open Box)
30-day returns
dbx 286s Microphone Preamp/Channel Strip
Dbx 286s Microphone Preamp Channel Strip Processor Working Tested
Free delivery
Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a small commission for purchases made through this link at no extra cost to you. This helps support our site. Thank you!
Dbx 286s Mic Pre-amp Processor 286 S Microphone Dbx De-esser Japan
Free delivery
Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a small commission for purchases made through this link at no extra cost to you. This helps support our site. Thank you!
Dbx 286s Microphone Preamp Channel Strip Processor Working Tested
Free delivery
Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a small commission for purchases made through this link at no extra cost to you. This helps support our site. Thank you!
There's really nothing else like it. Simply put, the most versatile all-in-one voice processor / preamp on the market. A truly professional product, thousands of broadcast radio stations around the world trust the 286s to make their on-air talent sound amazing. The idea that you can find gear of this quality for a few hundred bucks is mind boggling. You can quite literally achieve any sound your looking for, ever in untreated environments. Broadcasters, podcasters, VO artists, narrators... anyone who works with a microphone needs one of these. Sounds fantastic with my EV RE320. I could spend an entire day trying to describe why the 286s is so great, but you really need to hear it to appreciate what it can do for you. Thankfully there are dozens of review / demo ... MoreThere's really nothing else like it. Simply put, the most versatile all-in-one voice processor / preamp on the market. A truly professional product, thousands of broadcast radio stations around the world trust the 286s to make their on-air talent sound amazing. The idea that you can find gear of this quality for a few hundred bucks is mind boggling. You can quite literally achieve any sound your looking for, ever in untreated environments. Broadcasters, podcasters, VO artists, narrators... anyone who works with a microphone needs one of these. Sounds fantastic with my EV RE320. I could spend an entire day trying to describe why the 286s is so great, but you really need to hear it to appreciate what it can do for you. Thankfully there are dozens of review / demo videos to be found. Just google "dbx 286s setup" and prepare to be amazed!
This unit is amazing at getting the best possiable sound out of your vocals rather recording or live sound. It has the perfect lineup of all the vocal processing one could ask for in a single unit. I use it for live DJ vocal applications but have used one in voice over applications as well and it makes a huge difference. I would highly recommend for any one looking to have to more control over your vocals. I have several Dbx units from EQ , X-Over, etc and have been very impressed with them all.
I purchased this in feb 2021. After one week of use, i noticed the gain lowering by itself. it would lower to the point of silence. I would have sent it back to B&H but I didnt actually open the box for a few weeks after purchase. So I contact Harman and was instructed to take it to an authorized repair service in my local area. since it was under warranty I did not have to pay. THe repair center noticed that there were several places on the board that were not soldiered properly. so they touched it up and tested for a few days. All was fine and i used it for the rest of the year. shortly thereafter, the exact problem with the gain returned. So I took it back to the repair center (still under warranty) and they have informed me that the problem is unfixable. They ... MoreI purchased this in feb 2021. After one week of use, i noticed the gain lowering by itself. it would lower to the point of silence. I would have sent it back to B&H but I didnt actually open the box for a few weeks after purchase. So I contact Harman and was instructed to take it to an authorized repair service in my local area. since it was under warranty I did not have to pay. THe repair center noticed that there were several places on the board that were not soldiered properly. so they touched it up and tested for a few days. All was fine and i used it for the rest of the year. shortly thereafter, the exact problem with the gain returned. So I took it back to the repair center (still under warranty) and they have informed me that the problem is unfixable. They also say that Harman is out of stock on this item. The repair center has several of these units in line waiting to be fixed/replaced. According to the shop, one person in front of me has been waiting 7 months. Not sure if its the same issue. All in all this unit was great when it worked. It just didn't work for long. Did the people in my area just get the bad ones? I see they are in stock on B&H but I am skeptical on a repurchase. And I cant give this a high rating.
I am not a professional audio engineer, but I really like this device. I hesitated to buy it because I read in other reviews that there was a small hum emitted by the device. I experimented noise when I plugged the dbx to my audio interface (the livetrack L-8) but then I watched a tutorial in YouTube that explained that for best results the line out cable should be an stereo balanced trs cable, I was using a mono one, so my mistake. Also I read on the internet that the -26dB switch on the audio interface should be turned on. I changed the trs cable and turned on that switch and the noise completely disappeared. Hope this review helps.
Not sure how I missed the countless customers having this issue prior to purchasing. However, I am having the popular issue of this thing lowering about 20db during use. It does it on its own and I have tried making every adjustment I can think of and what others have recommended. The only fix that works is to un plug the unit and then back in. This will bring the levels back to the current settings only to lower to (inaudible) a few minutes later. Obviously, this behavior isn't good for a live show. I can not recommend this purchase to anyone. Just a few months after purchase with light use, It is now unusable.
Its very easy to adjust and you can get great sound. The only think was it has a hum and depending on the unit you get its loud or not so loud. The first one was so loud that I send it back to B&H. The customer service guy at DBX told that the transformer can become loose during shipment and recommended getting an exchange. The second one is much much quieter but it does have the hum. These kind of units are rare to get. Now a days the modern interfaces have digital interface that you need to tweek. Few other ones I found are more expensive. One with a big bottom. And the other that you need to eq.
This product is increasingly hard to find, but offers exceptional audio processing power for both broadcast and music applications and at a good price. We've bought these units primarily for broadcast voice applications and so cannot comment on their use in music recording or via the line input. However the unit provides what is essentially a complete channel strip consisting (L to R) of the following: A Mic Pre with gain control, a basic 4-LED level indicator, phantom power and 80Hz HPF, plus a button to use the mic pre on its own; A VERY powerful but very easy to use compressor with input level and release controls; A de-esser (which I've never used); An LF/HF enhancer which boosts bass and/or treble without muddying the sound; An expander/gate that lets you ... MoreThis product is increasingly hard to find, but offers exceptional audio processing power for both broadcast and music applications and at a good price. We've bought these units primarily for broadcast voice applications and so cannot comment on their use in music recording or via the line input. However the unit provides what is essentially a complete channel strip consisting (L to R) of the following: A Mic Pre with gain control, a basic 4-LED level indicator, phantom power and 80Hz HPF, plus a button to use the mic pre on its own; A VERY powerful but very easy to use compressor with input level and release controls; A de-esser (which I've never used); An LF/HF enhancer which boosts bass and/or treble without muddying the sound; An expander/gate that lets you remove room background noise below a certain threshold and by a chosen amount; and An output gain control that enables you to maintain a good gain structure for the signal path into your mixer. There are tutorials on the web for how to set this unit up as a starting point for broadcast applications - BSW has a video and cheat sheet that springs to mind - but in fact once you get the hang of what the controls actually do, it's very easy to set up. "Gotchas" include: Don't apply too much Drive to the compressor or it will remove all the dynamics in a voice and can be noticeable. Follow the maxim that if you can hear what it's doing you've turned it up too much; Be careful with the Expander/Gate ratio. Too much noice reduction here can sound a little "papery" on speech as the gate flutters in and out on breaths and other sounds when you are using a lot of compression. Try to set the Threshold so that it gates out room noise but only just, so the minute you speak or breath it opens up. My one complaint with this unit: they should have included a main power switch, even if it was round the back attached to the power socket. While a larger studio may well have a big power switch that brings everything up at start of day, and while there are arguments for leaving gear on all the time, if you are NOT using it all the time it would be nice to be able to switch it off. I bought an IEC in-line switch to do the job, but a built-in switch associated with the power socket would have added almost nothing to the cost - and you could still leave it on if you wish.
I'm using this to record VO for my YouTube channel. I previously used EQ, compression, de-essing, and noise gate plugins in Premiere pro on all of my audio tracks. Given the lack of track-level presets in Premiere, I bought this to see if I could get all of my processing done at recording time, and it's working out really well. My recording chain is: Shure SM7b - CloudLifter CL-1 - dbx 286s - Scarlett 2i2. A few notes on the sections of the 286s: Preamp: The preamp is nothing super special, but it works well as long as you keep the gain relatively low. The CloudLifter helps a lot because it allows me to keep the gain down around +30. I use the 80Hz high-pass in conjunction with the low-end enhancer because it helps emphasize the deep woody character of my voice. ... MoreI'm using this to record VO for my YouTube channel. I previously used EQ, compression, de-essing, and noise gate plugins in Premiere pro on all of my audio tracks. Given the lack of track-level presets in Premiere, I bought this to see if I could get all of my processing done at recording time, and it's working out really well. My recording chain is: Shure SM7b - CloudLifter CL-1 - dbx 286s - Scarlett 2i2. A few notes on the sections of the 286s: Preamp: The preamp is nothing super special, but it works well as long as you keep the gain relatively low. The CloudLifter helps a lot because it allows me to keep the gain down around +30. I use the 80Hz high-pass in conjunction with the low-end enhancer because it helps emphasize the deep woody character of my voice. Compressor: The compressor is...eh...okay. I wish I could set a threshold and ratio. The way the compressor works in the 286s requires to you to add gain (drive) to push the signal up to the knee instead of just setting the knee where you want it. If you add very much drive, the noise starts to pile up in a hurry. Again, the CloudLifter gets the signal level up without adding too much noise. De-Esser: The de-esser in the 286s is very smooth. I ended up with both knobs at 12-oclock, and it tames things down on my voice nicely while remaining pretty transparent. It doesn't add the noticeable artifacts that the de-esser in Premiere Pro often generates. Enhancer: I find that the low-end enhancer is very flattering for my voice. It adds back a little of the 80Hz power that was lost in the low-cut filter, and gives a nice woody character without becoming boomy or muddy. The high-end enhancer isn't really applicable for my voice, but if I turn it up at all, it emphasizes the hiss and other noise artifacts in the signal. Expander/Gate: I'm running the expander around 2:1 at -35 to -40dB. This does a good job of de-emphasizing room tone and breath sounds. If I turn the gain up to make a harder cut, the pumping becomes pretty obvious. Subtler is better. Output: The way I have the gains staged, I have the output set at 0, and the input on the Scarlett near the bottom of the range. This gives me peaks around -9dB in the recording, which is clean, without risking clipping. Overall, there is some noise introduced by the outboard gear, relative to digital effects in software, but as long as I keep everything subtle, it's fine. The time savings from getting it all in the initial recording is well worth it to me. The noise and artifacts from the processor are pretty subtle and only audible in good headphones, in isolation. Once the VO is bedded into a track with other sounds, they disappear effectively. I would consider turning the drive in the compressor down, and getting less usable compression, as a tradeoff to reduce noise, but this would also make it really hard to find and expander setting that helps very much. Bottom line: if I keep things subtle, this thing performs admirably and saves me a lot of time in post.
The effect is subtle, but there (may depend on your settings). I like that because it gives me more of that radio voice, but it's hard to tell that effects are applied. It also sounds like I have way more sound treatment in my room (both as a result of this device and my mic, an RE20) than I actually do. My room''s sound treatment is actually really bad. Can be a minor con: this doesn't seem to be as fine-tuned as control as more dedicated devices, but in my case, I like the simple controls. Also, this thing is quite wide thanks to it being designed for a rackmount
This 1U rack space unit packs a buncha tone and features inside. It sounds fantastic just running a mic through it w/ all processing off; in this mode it's like an "Ever-So-Much-More" sound: just like the mic's natural, basic tone only bigger, better, badder, and boffo-er......er, ok. Maybe not the last one, but......Ennyhoo, start monkeyin' around with the other sections of this l'il wonder and WOW! While I haven't tried out all of our mics thru the 286 yet, I have demo'ed some of our best mics (Carvin CTM100, MicParts S-25 that I built from a kit, Shure Beta 87A, Rode NT-1A, '60s EV644), and our most humble ( SM58, EV767ND, '60s RS "Highball 2" hi-z Omni), and every one benefited from this box's sonic magic, most mightily. It's worth the price of admission just ... MoreThis 1U rack space unit packs a buncha tone and features inside. It sounds fantastic just running a mic through it w/ all processing off; in this mode it's like an "Ever-So-Much-More" sound: just like the mic's natural, basic tone only bigger, better, badder, and boffo-er......er, ok. Maybe not the last one, but......Ennyhoo, start monkeyin' around with the other sections of this l'il wonder and WOW! While I haven't tried out all of our mics thru the 286 yet, I have demo'ed some of our best mics (Carvin CTM100, MicParts S-25 that I built from a kit, Shure Beta 87A, Rode NT-1A, '60s EV644), and our most humble ( SM58, EV767ND, '60s RS "Highball 2" hi-z Omni), and every one benefited from this box's sonic magic, most mightily. It's worth the price of admission just for what it does to and for the hand-held mics alone! I can see this transforming a dynamic vocalist's possibly lackluster PA in a live setting into an interesting and much more pleasing listening experience, one capable of encouraging more audience engagement. And in today's shart-fone obsessed 'society', that's sayin' something! In a recording studio setting, it has a definite place as a vocal and/or solo instrument overdub instrument, especially when more 'in your face' quality is what's desired. It also has been the budget-minded podcaster's choice for quite awhile now, and for the same reasons. You can spend many more digital zero$&one$ elsewhere for only small incremental improvements in performance here and there. This magic dingus box delivers, in spades. I just love mine. Recording vocals is exciting again! Just imagine how it feels for the vocalists.......
| Finish | Silver |
| Year | 2010s |
