Are there good alternatives to the aphex aural exciter and big bottom? Seems kinda pricy and also surprisingly little competition. Am I wrong?

The BBE Sonic Maximizer does a good job.

This is a silly question, but it seems like the type of thing Craig Anderton could describe how to roll your own Aural Exciter. What do you think the mean by frequency dependent phase?
 
Could a combination of Buses, EQs and tube plug ins do a fair job of faking it?
 
So the two buses would be phase inverted with differing eq settings and tube plugs.
 
Those two busses go to another bus. Since they are exactly phase flipped, everything except the different tube harmonics should cancel (maybe?). Now, apply EQ to reduce the harmonics except in the ranges you want.
 
So depending on your eq settings in the first 2 busses, the harmonics will be phase flipped by frequency. As they move higher and lower, they will flip phase.
 
This is kinda a lot of work to get a sound, but it is free to try it.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphex_Systems
 Based on this article there is some sort of delay as well side chain compression (?) to reduce the volume when there is more bass and boost it when there is less.

I bought the Aphex exciter at a ridiculous discount some time ago. It works wonders when you have say a sample of some old music that needs brightening, but for the life of me I cannot work out how to use it as an effect send without the result sounding a little "phasey." I must be doing something wrong. 

Can I ask what you paid?
$500 at Sweetwater
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/250TDM?gclid=CNKvsq3g7LgCFRGi4AodU1YAFQ
 
It helps to know that you aren't using it much.
 

gswitz
Can I ask what you paid?
$500 at Sweetwater
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/250TDM?gclid=CNKvsq3g7LgCFRGi4AodU1YAFQ
 
It helps to know that you aren't using it much.
 

LOL! I thought you were talking about the Waves one. It was $49. 

Thanks, Sharke. I guess I'll wait for a Waves sale. Do they use a dongle?
Or maybe I'll just add it to my long term hardware wish list.

sharke
I bought the Aphex exciter at a ridiculous discount some time ago. It works wonders when you have say a sample of some old music that needs brightening, but for the life of me I cannot work out how to use it as an effect send without the result sounding a little "phasey." I must be doing something wrong. 

Hey sharke - I don't think it's supposed to be used on a send. An exciter works on the sound itself = it's not like an "effect" that you "add" to the original sound...

Ozone? 
 
I have used it to brighten and add punch and bottom to old tapes.....and it does a superb job on my current recording projects.

The Aural Exciter at Sweetwater runs on Pro Tools' recently deprecated TDM hardware.
 
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/250TDM?gclid=CNKvsq3g7LgCFRGi4AodU1YAFQ
 
It will probably be selling at deep discounts in the near future. :-)