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
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?
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?
Drubin, that might not be an issue if one's speakers were already time coherent.
The TacT system is as described but it also permits use as a parametric EQ in addition to the autocorrection.

Kal
Kal, would I be correct in assuming that the parametric eq only works via subjective input and not via objective evaluation? If thats the case I suspect that true correction could be laborious.