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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Important Safeguards ............................................................................................................
BBE Process Explained .........................................................................................................
88i Sonic Maximizer
Product Description ......................................................................................................... 4
Applications/Set Up ......................................................................................................... 4
Front Panel Controls and Rear Panel Connections ............................................................ 5-6
48i Sonic Maximizer
Product Description ......................................................................................................... 7
Applications/Set Up ......................................................................................................... 7
Front Panel Controls and Rear Panel Connections ............................................................ 8-9
Specifications .................................................................................................................. 10
Service / Warranty / Maintenance .......................................................................................... 11
Thank you for your purchase, and for the trust that you've placed in BBE. We are
committed to bringing you the finest products, with useful and unique features to serve
your audio needs.
The BBE Sonic Maximizer is a 2-channel signal processor that will benefit any recording
or sound reproduction system. Whether you purchased the Sonic Maximizer for your
home studio, P.A., DJ system, or instrument rack, you will find the Sonic Maximizer's
rugged construction and careful electronic design a welcome addition to your sonic
arsenal.
The BBE Process - "What it Is"
Loudspeakers have difficulty working with the electronic signals supplied by an amplifier. These difficulties
cause such major phase and amplitude distortion that the sound reproduced by a speaker differs
significantly from the sound produced by the original source.
In the past, these problems proved unsolvable and were thus delegated to a position of secondary
importance in audio system design. However, phase and amplitude integrity is essential to accurate
sound reproduction. Research shows that the information which the listener translates into the
recognizable characteristics of a live performance are intimately tied into complex time and amplitude
relationships between the fundamental and harmonic components of a given musical note or sound.
These relationships define a sound's "sound".
When these complex relationships pass through a speaker, the proper order is lost. The higher
frequencies are delayed. A lower frequency may reach the listener's ear first or perhaps simultaneously
with that of a higher frequency. In some cases, the fundamental components may be so time-shifted that
they reach the listener's ear ahead of some or all of the harmonic components.
This change in the phase and amplitude relationship on the harmonic and fundamental frequencies
is technically called "envelope distortion." The listener perceives this loss of sound integrity in the
reproduced sound as "muddy" and "smeared." In the extreme, it can become difficult to tell the difference
between musical instruments, for example, an oboe and a clarinet.
BBE Sound, Inc. conducted extensive studies of numerous speaker systems over a ten year period.
With this knowledge, it became possible to identify the characteristics of an ideal speaker and to distill
the corrections necessary to return the fundamental and harmonic frequency structures to their correct
order. While there are differences among various speaker designs in the magnitude of their correction, the
overall pattern of correction needed is remarkably consistent.
The BBE Process is so unique that 42 patents have been awarded by the U.S. Patent Office.
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