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Review: Behringer DEQ2496 Equalizer

Category: Preamps

I mostly listen to classical music, but occasionally everything except rock pop and rap.

I am a sucker for spatial sense, and an effortless sound during loud passages. Note the elaborate subwoofer system and many watts of amplifier power.

Intermodulation distortion drives me nuts. Unfortunately this is often from mics used for vocalists, and can't be eliminated on playback.

I have just installed this unit, and it replaces nothing.
When set flat, or with its BYPASS mode engaged, I can detect no change in sonics. Its purpose is room equalization, and its effect will be whatever the benefits of room equalization are.

I did not go shopping for an equalizer: I have three channels of pure analog parametric equalization capability. What I wanted was a RTA, and this is one of few available other than Pro units costing several grand.
It costs only $340, and the associated mic and cable will set you back another $70 or so. It was my intention to bypass this unit once I determined the appropriate settings for the analog equalizers, but I now think that this is probably unnecessary, but it remains an option for digiphobics. This Behringer model uses 24bit 96KHz AD/DA converters, and I think some Floating Point processors for the DSP job. Very impressive. (An older model is being sold off cheap: it has less resolution). The unit has many capabilities beyond the EQ and RTA functions, but it would be worth the money for the RTA alone. You can download the owner's manual from the website. It looks complicated, but once you have the unit and play around with the controls is it all very easy. It is ruggedly built, (as prosound equipment must be) with well laid out controls, and, IMHO, an attractive addition to the equipment rack.

I auditioned the unit in the 2-channel bypass mode of the prepro.

This is a very nice toy, and cheap enough to gain easy spousal approval.

Associated gear
Denon 2900 with Underwood mod
Rotel 1066 PrePro
Ashley electronic crossover
3 CarverPro ZR1600 power amps biamped for front speakers
3 Magneplanar MG1.6
3 multidriver custom subwoofer systems


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eldartford
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
Anyone with a speaker system that has significant energy below 60 Hz could probably benefit from a PEQ. (it will be the very rare exceptional setup that does not have ultra-LF bumps).

This Behringer DEQ2496, when properly implemented, seems like one of the best value solutions.

Speaker choice and placement, room design, and room treatments will probably remain the first step to balanced sound (a PEQ does nothing to reduce reverb as it simply reduces the primary signal). However, given the practical limits to what can be achieved in a room for ultra-LF, a PEQ seems to work wonders in restoring balance to the sound (eliminating overly strong room modal frequencies that kill clarity in the rest of the bass and lower mid range ).

Great review.

With the prevalence and preference for subwoofers and full range speakers...a PEQ might become a standard piece of gear in a few years. At some point, someone will undoubtedly develop algorthims to help cancel certain reverberations through clever adjustments of ultra LF signals on 6.1 systems. (with speakers placed close to all four walls it ought to be possible to do something clever to further reduce at least two of the room modes at the listening position).
mingles
796 posts
 
Hi Eldartford, I'm late to this forum, but I want to thank you for the excellent info. I need to tame some bad room resonances. The DEQ2496 sounds like a great solution. I downloaded the manual, but couldn't find the info I'm looking for.

Can the unit be isolated to the LF signal if you're biamping? Or does it need to look at the whole audio spectrum to function correctly? My speakers crossover at 500 Hz with second order filters. The majority of the resonances I need to tame are between 30-250 Hz. So, in theory, it should work with just the LF.

Where does it connect in the signal path if you're biamping? I have two outputs coming from my preamp.

How many and what kind of microphones did you use?

As an aside, Behringer should improve the looks. This thing looks like it belongs in a teenager's bedroom.
eldartford OP
4,262 posts
 
In case anyone is reading this thread, here is how I answered Mingles by E-Mail. (He had contacted me directly because his posting seemed to have gotten lost).
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First of all, you shouldn't assume that only the LF needs equalization. If you are truly biamping (using an electronic crossover) the equalizer would go between the crossover and the LF power amp. If you are just using two amps you can put the equalizer in between the preamp and the LF amp.

Unless you run the whole frequency range through the Behringer the automatic equalization won't work. It would be trying to fix the awful HF roll off caused by the crossover. The autoeq is particularly good if you are biamping because it will clean up any gain mismatch and any anomalies of frequency response around the X/O frequency.

One mic is all you need...use the Behringer one made to go with this unit. Don't forget you need to buy a mic cable also
jcfergus
2 posts
 
A couple of clarifications that might help others considering the use of the DEQ2496.

The Behringer mic is the model ECM-8000. It is readily available from Behringer dealers on-line, not particularly expensive (~$50) and is reportedly a superb mic for recording acoustic music as well due to the wide, flat frequency response.

There is a work-around for the problem of the Auto EQ trying to offset the affect of the crossover. When setting up the AEQ, you can select each individual frequency that you want to equalize. In the manual, they recommend that it not be used for lower frequencies (the reason I bought it), but these bands can be manually added to the spectrum that is automatically equalized. It seems to work fine on frequencies all the way down to 20 Hz.

You can not only add or remove individual frequency bands in 1/3 octave increments, but you can also change the starting level and width of each band (although I haven't experimented with that).

There doesn't seem to be any reason that you couldn't put one in each signal path between the electronic crossover and the amp and equalize each band of your biamp/triamp setup.

One "characteristic" that I don't fully understand yet is when using the AEQ, as it runs its level adjustments, I always seem to end up with two or three bands that the automated adjustment seems to not fully adjust. They are not together and appear to be randomly distributed. These end up being ~3dB lower than the rest of the spectrum, while the rest appear to be within +-1/2 dB. This is probably not noticeable considering that the bass peak caused by room acoustics that the DEQ2496 is compensating for was as much as a 14dB rise at 100Hz.

Also, you will need a mic stand to position the mic approximately where your head would be when in the prime listening position.
mingles
796 posts
 
Jcfergus, thank you for this useful information. What are the dimensions of your listening room in feet, and at what frequencies does it have bass peaks? Do your speakers boom without an EQ?
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