Behringer as DAC?

The DEQ2496 has no volume control, so you would need to put it ahead of a preamp. But the DEQ2496 also has no signal selection, so it would only work with one source. This might be OK if all the other sources are analog, but you would only have the equalization and other DEQ2496 features for the one digital source.

The DEQ2496 is a great piece, but it would be a waste to use it only as a DAC. By the way, with 24 bits and 96KHz sampling there really aren't "blanks" to be filled in.

Suggestion...Spring for the $380 or so (with mic and cable) and give it a try. I (and some other people) hear no degradation of sound quality when the DEQ2496 is switched in, but, in any case, the overall sonic improvement resulting from equalization of room response is quite dramatic.

Actually there are two digital inputs: one AES/EBU and one S/PDIF optical. As Eldartford already mentioned, you can place the DEQ2496 between your digital source and your preamp, or you can feed the digital output to a DAC of your choosing, or use the built-in DAC's of your preamp if it has them. As I've mentioned in another post, I was testing this unit as a potential replacement for the Z-Systems RDQ-1 in a high-end audio system due to it's greater number of parametric EQ bands and greater overall flexibility. I wasn't actually expecting it to sounds as transparent as the many times more expensive RDQ-1, but was shocked that I was wrong (at least using it without any DA conversion; I have not tried it's DACS). What you don't get is the robust build quality of the more expensive 'audiophile' processors. I agree that it's definitely worth the $300 for the unit, but don't agree with Eldartford that it's worth it to spring for the mic and cable, although for just a few bucks more you might want to give it a try. I didn't think the auto-correction feature works very well.

Smeyers...Just curious... but what exactly is the problem you experienced with the autoequalization process? It works perfectly in my system. And the build "robustness" seems OK to me. After all, this is pro sound equipment built to withstand the rough handling of road trips.

If you dont want to use the DACs in the Behringer and you place it between the cd player and the preamp using the analog input then you are not using the DACs in the Behringer. Is this correct?