Behringer DEQ2496: Ease of Use

Not so hard to use. Though certainly far more difficult than the typical audiophile gear, which has been minimalist in nature for a very long time now.

I have mine on loan to a buddy right now, and my energy has been put into different areas for the last several months. My quick and dirty go of it over the summer showed that it purported itself quite well in my second system, where I (like most of us) have some notable room issues.

Reading the $300 price being brought up by Warnerwh, I just got a nice chuckle. We can barely buy a decent set of isolation points or an entry level interconnect for the same money. And, obviously, the potential of this device is far higher than a couple of brass cones. The main thing I need to do at some point is to determine if I come to the same conclusion as Tvad, Restock, and Redkiwi regarding the deleterious effects on sonics. Though even if it does, I've certainly made far worse purchases than this.

Trelja...If one is using the input A/D or the output D/A it is essential (for a valid evaluation) that the signal level be close to, but not over, clipping. This can be a problem with typical consumer audio equipment if the DEQ2496 is inserted in the TAPE loop. I have mine between preamp and power amp, with a lot of attenuation going into the power amp, so that the preamp output is high.

Also, note that RAM does upgrades to this unit which they claim make it the equal of the best DACs. About $1600 for all the bells and whistles (including transformer outputs). Of course the price of this upgrade removes the unit from the "dirt cheap" category, to the "audiophile inexpensive" category. If I find a grand laying around I may send one of my three units off to see what they can do for it.

I was wondering if I can use my CDP's dig out into the unit-correct and then dig out to my CDP's dig in. (MF Trivista) I do have to choose the dig in on the MF remote. I just don't know if the dig out from the transport keeps working when I do that. Any thoughts welcome!

ET

Eldartford: With my room being fully treated the worst case is plus or minus 10db. With just small adjustments across the frequency spectrum I've found I can make a huge difference in the presentation of my system.

At 31.5 I have it cut 4db which is not the 10db it actually is. Also at 10khz I have it cut 3.5db. I'm guessing that you're cutting or boosting more frequencies than the target frequencies which is why I'm apprehensive to make larger cuts. As for boosts I don't want to push my speakers and amp too far although the amp driving my woofers puts out 600wpc and the amp driving the planar/ribbons puts out 500wpc into 4 ohms.

I don't think most people should start out making large adjustments. At least in my experience it has been easier to take my time. The few people who sell these pieces I'd suspect a pretty fair percentage didn't learn how to use it properly and weren't patient. Just my opinion of course.

Warnerwh...I understand your point of view. But consider that if you use the "Feedback Destroyer" to do the cuts the bandwidth can be 1/60 octave, and you wouldn't have to worry about affecting adjacent frequencies.

I am using maximum cut around 60 Hz for my rear speakers that are mounted in alcoves. It's the alcoves which seem to function as a resonant external part of the speaker enclosure..ie: the 60 Hz hump is not caused by the room at large. As such, I am correcting response of the speaker itself, so I don't get into the direct vs reflected sound issue. Whatever...it works.