Has anyone ever made an audiophile quality equalizer?

I used a Realistic 10 band equalizer, but after I used the switch to bypass the equalizer then turned it back on, I realized the equalizer was hurting sound quality. I now have a Yamaha EQ 330 that does not do this (at least to my ears). I use it to add a little bass and mids to my music. I'd recommend it!

 

I had a realistic 5 band back in the day https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/...B3fxzrc_4pnnc1wOFShhpO_Bfq-tBJnaMrsQ_cUqU4ulI and I remember it being fairly noisy.

 

I used the Realistic 31-2009 12 band EQ throughout my childhood. That thing made everything sound magical, and when you kicked in the "stereo expander"-my head exploded. Of course I'm much better now .

 

Hmm, I've never heard of a 'stereo expander' function before. What is it? What did it do to the sound?

 

Increases stereo separation artificially. My Behringer Dualfex Pro enhancer/exciter (a harmonic enhancer processor unit) features this. I tried it once out of curiosity. Yuck; no good !. I don't even know why it features this function in the first place; just something to make the front fascia busier I guess

 

Ahhh okay. So the separation that it creates doesn't sound good at all to your ears? Hearing about this got me really curious, because I value soundstage and imaging very highly. If doing this will only degrade sound quality, then I won't bother trying to find a way to do it.

 

The soundstage and imaging are BUTCHERED. Ever heard those commercials on TV that try to get the most fake surround out stereo sound ? As if the sounds were coming from the adjacent (and distant) lateral wals of the room ? instead of the speakers All tinny and hollow ? That. Don't bother.

 

Didn't some vintage Pioneer equalizers come with a reverb?

 

To my young untrained ears, the unnatural fullness and "widening" of the stereo image had one additional attribute: it had a bump around 60hz that gave the music a thump that just sounded so good with my Cerwin Vega towers. To be clear, if I heard this now I'd run screaming from the room. The other thing that Radio Shack EQ could do was add the equalized sound to any cassette recordings I made. Result? It made my anemic card stereo sound just a little bit better.

 

This one is neat

 

Neat, but the Pioneer has adjustable freqs for both channels INDEPENDENTLY. Extremely useful.

 

Very true, especially on those "extreme" stereo 1960's recordings.

 

Room correction is the future. Programs like Peter Lyngdorf's Room Perfect and the Linn system are the wave of the future. Some of you should read some of Robert E. Greene's reviews in TAS.

 

The DSPeaker is high on my list: http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/dspeaker-anti-mode-20-dualcore-digital-signal-processor/

 

I've been using a Yamaha GE-40 for about a year now, and I love it. It functions primarily as a crossover, keeping everything below 80 Hz out of the mains, and I use the output control to balance between mains and subs.

Frequency response: 10Hz to 100kHz
Signal to Noise Ratio: 110dB
Total harmonic distortion: 0.005%

I guess that's fairly close to being "audiophile". I had a Sansui that was not great but okay, and a Realistic which lived in my system for all of 5 minutes before it found the dumpster.

 

I know Kenwood made some nice Realistic receivers back in the day. It's probably a coin flip on many of their products

 

Interesting, I did not know that. I'm pretty sure that Shure made Realistic carts, and the Montgomery Ward line of stereos was made by Sylvania.

 

Speaking of equalizers, I have a very nice, EX+ condition Realistic 10 band equalizer that I would be willing to sell to anybody who is interested. I no longer have room for it. I made a ground wire in it, too, so that if you get a hum, you can just ground it which takes care of that. It also has individual left and right channel volume/output adjustment. Let me know or PM me if interested!

 

There is a forum where you can sell equipment. This isn't it.

 

The stereo expander sounds to me like "processed for stereo effect" records. The stage does widen, but at the expense of quality sound. The sound becomes harsh and tinny, the bass bloated and blurred, vocals artificial sounding.

Quality EQ units for home hifi are scarce. Most good EQ units are expensive and are professional units such as Rane, and many expensive boutique units. Most pro models are parametric EQ's. There is one affordable unit I know of, the Pioneer SG-90. The EQ section is discrete transistor with quality metal film caps in the signal path. It also features M-5218 chips for input/ output buffer amps, very quiet and low distortion, sn ratio of 120 dB, total harmonic distortion .001% 20 - 20,000 Hz, freq resp 10 - 100,000 Hz. The SG-90 is a 17 band graphic EQ. The bands are not octave doubles, so they are not harmonically related. A 10 band EQ has octave related bands, so they are harmonically related, and greatly increase your harmonic distortion.. (do not buy a 10 band EQ, for example a 7 band sounds far better given equal quality, since the iso centers are not harmonically related)

My only criticism for the Pioneer SG-90 is too many features, too much clutter on the front panel, would be a much more serious unit if it had been a simpler design. This unit was made for making mix tapes in mind, with a cross fade feature (unnecessary) and connection of two tape decks (or CD recorders) for convenient control. There is a +/- 6dB option for the EQ section which is very useful. A also like the "reverse" feature, the inverse EQ without touching the setting, so you can do a pre-emphasis/ de-emphasis for reducing tape hiss, when using tape decks. I have found this unit to be very neutral, the EQ section very musical sounding, it's internal components very high quality, low distortion and extremely quiet, a nice hifi device. The Pioneer SG-90 can be found on ebay or Craig's list, sometimes hard to find, and at a price range from $150.00 to $250.00 for a good working unit... lower priced units can have issues.
rock on,
Steve VK

 

I know that. I was just seeing if anybody would have an interest.

Interesting. Thanks for the information. I did not know that about 10 vs 7 band EQs.

 

For my system, the only acceptable consumer equalizer is the Cello Audio Palette. All else would degrade the sound of my system.

 

NBS tone control. I had one in my system and was pleasantly surprised how well it worked.

 

Looks beautiful. Is this a vintage piece? How much was/is it?

 

"Modern" product.

$25,000

http://www.nbscables.com/products/univ-tone-control.html