I know this is heresy, but...

We all wish our multi thousand dollar equipment and speakers were tone coherant directly with all recordings, but in general this is nothing more than a fantasy, and honestly the only way I have found fairly consistent and liveable with almost no adjustment is a Very good analog source.

By no way does digital ever consistently come close I don't care how much the transport or player costs, maybe this is opinion, or my experiance souly. I don't think this is so much to do with the equipment however just the recording, and vinyl seems more even in general and fairly consistent. I am not selling the idea of vinyl here, But an Eq is not a bad thing especially with multiple sources that need to be tuned in, but can overdo some stuff definatley.

FOr those that have used the Berhinger ULTRACURVE PRO DEQ2496, please let me know, have you used it between preamp and amp or source and pre? It is balanced only I/O and for me this means b/t preamp and amp.

I am curious how transparent this device is, but i am also interested in the undeniable flexibilty that a real EQ brings to the audio table. I have scores of CDs that sound better over my monsoon system in my car, than thru the hi-fi. Please don't tell me my system is whacked then...;)
I know that an EQ is not a panacea for all discs but certainly some would benefit with a little spectral tilt...too warm and wooly too bright poor bass eq, etc.

I think my room acoustics are very good now with the help of 8th nerve and big fuzzy furniture, but some cds can't be helped even with good room acoustics and fairly transparent audio gear (Marantz 8001, ARC LS-15, ARC 100.2, Dynaudio COntour 1.8's). I think the benefit of even simple tone controls would be totally sweet, in the ARC-LS 15 itself!!

Dpac996...The DEQ2496 has balanced inputs and outputs, but can also be connected single ended either input or output, or both. It automatically detects what you are doing and sets its gain accordingly. I use it single ended in from preamp, and balanced out to power amps. I had unbalanced interconnects made with RCA on one end and XLR on the other so as to avoid using adapters.

Opinions about "transparency" range all over the place, and I suggest you ignore them all. (Except mine of course...very transparent). The darned thing is so inexpensive that you can get one and form your own opinion.

The Behringer DEQ 2496 in my system is completely transparent. It also has helped sound improvements substantially. My room is already well treated being LEDE with four large bass traps, one in each corner.

The rest of my system consists of VMPS RM 40's(super revealing), Primare Pre 30 preamp, Rotel amp running both woofers of each speaker, Sony ES cd player outputting to the Behringer which then outputs to my Bel Canto DAC 1.1.

I've never heard better sound anywhere. I've also never paid so little for something that could help so much. As I said earlier even in my well treated room the 300 bucks the Behringer will cost you is a killer deal. After over 3 decades in this hobby I'd classify it as the best tweak per dollar in existance.

You have two ten band parametric equalizer bands as well as two 31 band graphic equalizer bands. The piece will also do auto equalization. You just set the curve you want, hook up the microphone(a necessity if you buy one) and let her rip. Then where it boosted the dips bring them back down to near even.

Please remember the AVERAGE listening room has peaks and dips of 15db. That's alot and is like letting a 5 year old adjust a graphic equalizer for you. That's what your room does to the sound. Fixing it can make a huge difference in the sonic presentation of your system. I'd still get room treatments first but for the little money the Behringer unit costs it's a no brainer.