Digital Software RIAA EQ for Vinyl

I guess I will answer my own question....

Based on researching other forums, talking to various people etc... I tracked down 3 options.. (hope this helps the next persons trying to find his/her way along this path!)

1) Custom PlugIn developed by various people based on the hard core math..... (mostly Windows focused but the data is generic, and the options is there to implement it for mac)
http://jiiteepee.fortunecity.com/riaafilter/index.html
http://www.vacuumsound.de/plugins.html

The best seems to be the Synthedit VST plugins developed by Juha (jiiteepee)

I am using this, and have tested it with various test tones, inverse RIAA EQ, pink noise etc.... seems to work well.

2) Diamond Cut commercial software (Windows):
http://www.diamondcut.com/store/index.php

I will be pulling down a trial version of this to test, but I am happy with my current recording software, and really don't want a 4th or 5th piece of recording software... that all do most of the same functions..... - DC should really market the RIAA EQ part separately (as a plugin) as well as the entire package...

3) Pure Vinyl (Mac)

this one has the greatest backing amongst audiophiles.... but it is MAC Only - so not an option for me. (No I am not willing to get to know an entire environment just for a single piece of software...)

All the other options out there (including some of the ones on jiiteepee's page like IIEQ) only do the amplitude RQ of RIAA, and don't touch the Phase. (or at least don't consciously touch the phase... :-) ) - this includes all the Graphic and Parametric equaliser options which have profiles for RIAA and Inverse RIAA.... (I experimented with several of these including the ones for CoolEdit, Audacity, Audition, and a bunch of VST plugin EQ's as well)

If anyone is aware of other options that have been written to correct both amplitude and phase - please make a posting to add to the information I have been able to collect to date.

bye for now

David

Also ClickRepair Equalizer - Freeware RIAA EQ that apparently covers phase as well as amplitude...

http://www.clickrepair.net/software_download/equalizer.html

The RIAA time-constants (3180uS pole, 318uS zero, 75uS pole) are specifications that communicate exact magnitude AND phase behavior of the equalizer for any given frequency. Can't have one without the other.

But there's a 40dB-ish magnitude difference between the top and bottom of the audio spectrum with the RIAA curve, and implimenting this purely in the digital domain will greatly magnify the usual noise vs. headroom vs. distortion tradeoffs which are the basis for the challenges in designing high-quality analog phono EQs.

If this is just a "use what you have lying around" kind of application, then it may make some sense . . . but if you're looking for the highest quality transfers or making an investment into new gear, then you will generally get much better results with a high-quality phono preamp with analog RIAA compensation.