2. vintage
  3. 189969-161246

Still the demons of GAS pursue me

Who among you has felt regret when a long-wanted item from yesteryear pops up?

About forty-five years ago, a certain popular HiFi manufacturer’s new parametric equalizer was, to me, the bee’s knees. I dreamed that I might have it one day and use it to get deep bass and tingling highs out of any speaker. A few years later, a friend who had been in the service picked one up, and it still seemed to be all that. Any frequency band could be emphasized to the point of loud or suppressed into silence.

This week, one appeared on that bay place, in “very good condition”, for next to nothing. I thought to hit Buy It Now as fast as possible; before it gets away. But then reality set in. It’s clear enough that where my system is today, adding that processor would radically degrade and certainly not enhance the sound of my system.  

So now I find myself browsing that listing daily or worse. I’d appreciate reading similar accounts that others may have.

eurorack
erik_squires
16,373 posts
 

It reminds me of the Apogee EQ reviews.

I think it's important to figure out how we enjoy Audio.  Some do so by endlessly buying and tinkering.  Some by falling asleep to Chopin.  There's nothing wrong with all of it.

In general though, I think that adding an EQ should be done with purpose, if not measurements in mind. I don't know if this brand of EQ would degrade your experience or not, but I do think that EQ's are best implemented with at least some idea of a goal.  If you just want to have it to play with it, get it! :)  Or consider a miniDSP as a cheap playground.

mofimadness's avatar
mofimadness
5,011 posts
 

I sold a plethora of EQs back in the day. Never understood why anyone would buy them. Band-Aids for sure. I never heard one actually make a system sound better, just different with added noise. I take that back, the Cello Palette was pretty cool, but expensive!

The ADC Sound Shaper was popular along with all the DBX crap of the day.

stereo5's avatar
stereo5
6,464 posts
 

It must be an SAE EQ, as James Bongiorno worked at SAE before founding GAS. 

jnovak's avatar
jnovak
433 posts
 

popular thinking in the 70's was "the more gear you can feed the signal though, the better". Guys used to drool over the rack mounted components. Some of that equipment still commands a fair dollar. I see the Pioneer SX1250 with an asking price of $4000.00 Just nuts. I had two of them. I paid in the $600.00 range and sold for the same amount. My first step forward to better audio was when I removed the jumper plug between the preamp and amp section of the Pioneer and inserted an Onkyo preamp. Much, much better sound. The rest is history.

roxy54's avatar
roxy54
8,066 posts
 

I don't understand what the big secret about the equalizer is. Hurt feelings? C'mon... Oh well, who cares anyway.

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