Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Is Equalizer a bad word??

As a noob, I don't hear or see much mentioned about equalizers amongst the audiophile crowd. Are they highly frowned upon and should one ever use them? Thanks

I do all the time! (although I'm a musicophile rather than an audiophile. hehe...) My Pioneer 45TX receiver has the MCACC auto-room/system calibration feature, which include a (lowly) 5-band EQ. It is no gimmick; it provides a real audible improvement.

Completely agree with sushi, Craig. This appears to be an extension of the irrational fear some audiophiles have of even using tone controls to help with poorly recorded material. With regard to equalizers, concerns about inaudible phase shift or totally imaginary problems prevent taking a useful step to partially compensate for room and speaker response variations.

Interesting...are there recommended equalizers that you, Sushi and others would recommend (e.g., the equivalent of an HSU or SVS sub?) as a complement to a system?

Larry, quite a few companies make separate graphic or parametric equalizers, such as the Rane PE-17. The Rane site has an interesting collection of technical papers on equalizers and other audio matters. One problem is that still more equipment is necessary to measure and attempt to correct the frequency response. The most practical route, and possibly a coming thing, is a receiver with built in microphone and equalization circuitry for all channels. Sushi's Pioneer 45TX has it, the new Yamaha 2400 and 1400 coming out early next month have it, and the usual rumors are around about other makers adopting the feature. At least now these receivers don't have the flexibility of adjustments that separate equipment offers, but it's built in and automatic.

I don't have any experience with a standalone digital equalizer (last time I used any EQ was like 15 years ago). But among affordable EQs, I hear many good things about the Behringer units. Especially, the new DEQ2496 seems darn good, at the street price of ~$300. It has a built-in RTA (spectrum analyzer), which enables fully automatic room equalization. It seems that EnjoyTheMusic.com plans to do a review article on DEQ2496 soon.

For subwoofer EQ (to bash room-mode peaks), the Behringer DSP1124P seems to be a popular choice (street price ~$120).

The only caveat on these "pro" audio gears is that they are configured with XLR balanced inputs/outputs, operating at line signal levels that are higher than the home audio standards. People seem to prefer using these gears with digital in/digital out.

sushi,

I know you are not an expert on the Behringer products, however, I was hoping you could answer a couple of my simple questions.

1. I see the DEQ2496 would go between a pre/pro and an amp. Would it work to run it from my 53Tx preouts and back in to the amp? (I know I would have to have some RCA to 1/4 Banana adapters)

2. I would need a DEQ2496 for each pair of channels right?

1. It should work just fine. But as I said, you have to correctly configure the DEQ2496 so that it works at the line signal levels of home-audio equipment (I believe there is such options somewhere in its highly complex menus -- consult the PDF manuals). Otherwise, you will not fully utilize its 24-bit dynamic range, which is a bad thing.

2. Yes, if you want a full EQ for every channel. But I would start with just the two front channels first, which is all you need for 2.0 or 2.1 listening.