| Aphex Bass Xciter vs. BBE Sonic Maximizer - My $.02
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I've had both of these gadgets for a while. The Sonic Maximizer is the 362SW rackmount (It has a subwoofer out, but that's not really useable in my rig), and the Bass Xciter is the plain ol' stomp box version.
Since the SM was racked in with my amp, I used it mainly with my last couple of bands (Both fairly aggressive) and I really liked it. The BX stayed on my pedal board, and I used it as a DI when I played at church, since we don't use amps. The DI is a nice feature, but I wouldn't buy it solely for that reason.
I've A/B'd the two a couple of times, and my impression of the two has generally been that the SM was quicker to dial in and a touch meaner sounding, whereas the BX was more tweakable, and a little more polite.
My real revelation was on Monday. My band was recording, and after playing through one song and hearing the playback, it was obvious that something was wrong with my tone. What sounded great live wasn't working well in the studio. The tone was too grimy (which was in very large part due to me using too much gain on my Digitech Bad Monkey) and not punchy and natural sounding. I tweaked the EQ, and that helped. I turned off the SM, and that helped somewhat, but there was instantly a bit of clarity and depth missing, so I plugged in the BX and twisted a few knobs.
WOW.
Big difference. The Bass Xciter was WAY fatter sounding (even at very moderate levels), and a WHOLE lot more natural. We ran through the track again, and there was a world of difference in the overall tone of the song. The difference was like replacing a Civic with a Mack truck.
Keep in mind that this is just my own experience, and not everyone will get the same results. Also, I am using the older 362 Sonic Maximizer, and not the newer 481 (?) model, which is what is inside the Sonic Stomp. However, I'm about to take the Sonic Maximizer out of my rack and just hook it up between my DVD player and my stereo and just keep using the Bass Xciter. | 
