Audiophile Digital Equalizer????

Is there such a thing as an Audiophile grade digital equalizer with enough memory capability to store individual curves for a large disc library or at least a good number of "catagory" or "group" type setting memories? it would have to be a stand alone component transparent enough not to "veil" the sound and have remote setting capability. Anyone know of or have such a unit?

 

One can dream can't one? You would think with today's technology a component like this would be within reach.

It would address three main factors: room and playback equipment limitations, recording deficiencies as well as personal taste.

 

Anything you put in the signal path has an enormous impact. There are ways to solve your limitations and deficiencies without an equalizer.

 

The action itself could very well be analogue. The settings and memory would be in the digital domain. This type of application plays on the strength of each. Digital would not have to be involved in the signal path whatsoever.

 

I know, for a fact, that the best thing you could use is the Behringer series of digital eq's.

It can cover your needs... it only has 100 memory positions, though.

Yeah, yeah. I can hear the purists screaming out of the top of their lungs how this is the closest thing to audio sacrilege the world has ever seen.

Well, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is, in theory, they must be right. Inserting any piece of equipment in your audio chain must affect somewhat the "purity" of the audio signal... right?

I... guess so. I'd say some people would even argue that using a digital equalizer in the digital domain (AES/EBU/SPDIF only) would somehow mess the sound. Bits are bits, I say, but then again, I'm no expert, so I won't debate the point.

There are good news, IMHO, though. Let's, for the sake of this argument, say that, indeed, a digital eq introduces some noise and distortion. And lets say that it's even audible in an A/B comparison.

Well, let me tell you something. In my own experience, with my own real-life audio equipment, in my own room, with my own ears, my digital EQ experience has been nothing short of a revelation. I use the old UltraCurve Pro, using the room auto-EQ with my strictly mid-fi system (MartinLogan Scenarios, Adcom amp, Parasound pre), it has blown everyone who listens to my system away. It's the closest thing I've ever heard to listening to music on my Sennheiser 580 headphones. Gone are the weak, sloppy bass, the unruly mids,and the piercing highs. It's the best system I have now - well, the best system my parents' have, since I had given up on the MartinLogans.

The only thing you have to VERY closely pay attention to is the input and output levels, so as to not saturate the EQ's buffers. Since I use the device entirely in the digital domain, this isn't a problem for me, though.

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=37947&highlight=behringer+ultracurve

In conclusion - will a digital EQ have its share of problems. Yep, well, at least that's what some people think. Do the benefits outweigh its problems? That's a call you have to make. Fortunately, at $179 for the digital EQ, it's a choice that won't set you back that much.

ps I love my digital EQ!

 

Khorn, something like you suggest can be built, but it would be expensive. The Premier Conrad Johnson preamps all now have remote controls that switch relays in the unit that select among a set of precision resistors for volume control (now remember what cj premier equipment costs). So first you have to build a high-end analog equalizer with a bank of similar volume controls each with a band pass filter to select the frequency range that each volume control covers. Then instead of driving the relays directly with the remote the remote would send out an address signal to a memory device in the unit (this is the digital part) that would respond to that address signal by sending the right setting to each of the relays to adjust that volume control to a preset setting. Using the highest quality resistors, caps and chokes, the relay switches are all gold plated and encapsulated (like cj's), if you really want to go whole hog you could do point-to-point silver wiring and my guess is you could bring the thing in for some where between $10K and $20K.

 

Alesis has a great series of digital EQs as well.

 

hrmm... I think the Enterprise-D had the latest model zukowski palaskov digital parametric full band gugl eq. I could be mistaken...

 

There's this
http://www.weiss.ch/eq1/eq1.html

It runs around $5k or $6k for the base model, plus you'd probably want some sort of MIDI librarian to store a couple thousand presets (I'm not sure what that'd set you back). But with seven parametric bands you could tweak and tweak and tweak...

Or there's this
http://www.spl-usa.com/PQ/pq_in_short.html

It's analog and has something like 25,000 presets; runs around $12k.

 

This is indeed a very interesting product.

http://www.behringer.com/DEQ2496/index.cfm?lang=ENG

 

If you get a moment, could you explain why you prefer an analog EQ. Appreciated.

 

The Rives PARC, Parametric Adaptive Room Compensation, does a good job of dealing with bass problems. This was obvious in the Shunyata room at last years HE2003 in San Francisco. It really ameliorated the slap-echo; but I still preferred the sound with it out of the circuit. That's the only type of home sound futzing I'd endorse. Leave the equalizers to the studio crowd - they know how to (ab)use them properly.

 

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=12829