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  3. 1137452459

EQ's... why doesnt everybody have one?

Just browsing around the systems on this site, i knoticed that very few have equalizers. I realize some claim they introduce unacceptable noise but i would hardly call my Furman Q-2312, at %>.01 20Hz-40kHz, unacceptable. This $200 piece of equiptment ($100 on sale at musiciansfriend.com) replaces several thousand dollars in assembling a perfectly linear system in perfectly linear room, and in my opinion, accomplishes the task better than any room design could no matter how well engineered. It brought my system (onkyo reciever, NHT SB-3 speakers and Sony CD changer) to a level i could not have dreamed. It extends the SB-3's frequency response by at least 10 Hz to a satisfying 30 Hz without any rolloff or sacrifice in clarity, but the greatest improvement was definately in the Mid-range, around the SB-3s crossover frequency of 2.6kHz. The clarity of vocals, strings, guitars, brass... anything in this range rivals that of uneq'd systems costing well into the thousands of dollars... my total cost; $800. One of the more supprising differences is a marked improvement in immaging, it think this might have to do with eliminating several resonances in the right channel caused by my back wall (the left back wall has a curtain over it). The second my dad heard the difference he got on my computer to buy one for himself, he couldnt even wait to get back to his own, he then kicked me outa the listening chair and wouldnt get up for the better part of an hour.
-Dan-
dk89
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,144 posts
 
GML, Millennia, Manley, Drawmer and Z-Sys are just some of the EQs that would easily qualify as audiophile grade.
unsound
7,314 posts
 
I was told by TacT that one couldn't use their room correction software to specificaly target frequencies (such as bass). One would have to allow the entire frequency response to be corrected and then one could over correct back to the original uncorrected response above the desired corrected bass frequencies. Perhaps I'm just being a typical neurotic audiophile but to my way of thinking it would be similar to writting a verse on a clean sheet of paper, writting a new verse over that verse and then erasing it and rewritting the original verse over the erased segement. Of couse while this is going on one would have to be carefull not to effect surrounding verses. The results of which probably wouldn't be as pristine as the original verse written on the origianl clean sheet of paper. BTW, I would love to be wrong about this.
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drubin
3,267 posts
 
Yes, when I had the TacT, I wished there was a way to "bypass" certain parts of the frequency spectrum and just apply the curve to the areas you choose. Seems like it wouldn't be so hard to do that. However, if the system is making adjustments in the time domain, presumably you would want those to happen from 20-20K, right?
smeyers
181 posts
 
I own both the Z-Systems and the Behringer EQ's, and to my ears (with the Behringer kept in the digital domain) I could not tell the difference (and the interface and flexibility of the Behringer is far superior). Maybe others with more golden ears than mine would be able to tell the difference. Although I do wonder if there is a certain bias by certain 'audiophiles' against this unit since it is so inexpensive. If it cost $3k instead of $300, would you feel any different?
unsound
7,314 posts
 
Drubin, that might not be an issue if one's speakers were already time coherent.
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