Adding a 10-band PEQ to a DAC - What is holding manufacturers back?

[Rednaxela]

Sony could do a 3-band one in 1989.

What is it that seems to make a proper stereo DAC with just 7 more bands too much to ask for in 2022?

No software interface required, a simple screen and a couple of front panel controls would do. Even be preferred actually.

Is it too difficult? Too niche? Both? Something else?

 

[sweetchaos]

Because no one was asking or cared about this until recently.

Recently, due to Amir (and a few other notable reviewers) making equalization a standard practice in order to improve the performance of both headphones and speakers.

Before joining ASR, I knew about equalization but never appreciated its importance.

 

[HarmonicTHD]

Because no one was asking or cared about this until recently.

Recently, due to Amir (and a few other notable reviewers) making equalization a standard practice in order to improve the performance of both headphones and speakers.

Before joining ASR, I knew about equalization but never appreciated its importance.

… plus what would Joe Average do with it? I still remember the smiley face EQ settings one found throughout the 80ies and 90ies.
IMHO. Joe Average is more helped with some automated settings as some of the AVRs provide and where one can still see improvements in SQ and UI for the future.


Edit. Typo.

 

[tomtoo]

Sony could do a 3-band one in 1989.

What is it that seems to make a proper stereo DAC with just 7 more bands too much to ask for in 2022?

No software interface required, a simple screen and a couple of front panel controls would do. Even be preferred actually.

Is it too difficult? Too niche? Both? Something else?

Couse its much more easy, to sell to some audiphools a expensive cable, than do the software for a good peq.

 

[abdo123]

Because the expertise required to build a DAC is very very different from the expertise to build a software capable of manipulating audio.

There are only three companies I'm aware of that make DACs with digital processing. That's RME, Qudelix and MiniDSP. It baffles me that Qudelix is a one person business, just imagine how much effort went into making the Qudelix 5K from scratch. RME is a multi-million dollar companty and MiniDSP was founded on that niche (DACs with EQ) so they make sense.

 

[Thomas_A]

A small high performance DAC with polarity switch and PEQ - big yes to that.

 

[poxymoron]

Sony could do a 3-band one in 1989.

What is it that seems to make a proper stereo DAC with just 7 more bands too much to ask for in 2022?

No software interface required, a simple screen and a couple of front panel controls would do. Even be preferred actually.

Is it too difficult? Too niche? Both? Something else?

Ah, nostalgia. Boy did I love those Sony separates with the wooden accents back in the day. Still do.

 

[Rednaxela]

… plus what would Joe Average due with it?

All right, but why would Joe Average have to be in the target audience? All the top SINAD DACs discussed here, some of which are relatively pricey, are not for Joe Average either right?

 

[Rednaxela]

On the software side of things @tomtoo @abdo123 - good points. I understand that some embedded software needs to be written by someone to end up with something functional. And this adds complexity.

Out of interest does this generally include the PEQ processing routines as well? And if so, would you say those form the hardest or the easiest part? Genuinely interested.

 

[Plcamp]

I would be happy with a DAC having just two fully parametric eq bands…bass and treble controls with variable gain, corner freq and q. More bands nice to have, but I just want them to be able to tweak the occasional song that needs it, and two are enough for that.

 

[NikJi]

The EQ should be limited to 0.5db. That is plenty to make a tonal difference

 

[Grotti]

I would be happy with a DAC having just two fully parametric eq bands…bass and treble controls with variable gain, corner freq and q. More bands nice to have, but I just want them to be able to tweak the occasional song that needs it, and two are enough for that.

Seems that you should buy a RME DAC ;o)...

 

[HarmonicTHD]

All right, but why would Joe Average have to be in the target audience? All the top SINAD DACs discussed here, some of which are relatively pricey, are not for Joe Average either right?

Correct. Like it or not Joe Average drives the business and therefore the R&D invests of those manufacturers. But yes sure it would be good.

 

[Rednaxela]

The EQ should be limited to 0.5db. That is plenty to make a tonal difference

What do you mean?

 

[HarmonicTHD]

The EQ should be limited to 0.5db. That is plenty to make a tonal difference

That would defy two important aspects of a PEQ, which is to compensate for room modes and secondly dial in preference curves with some kind of tilt/boost (dB/octave). Or am I not understanding you correctly?

 

[Balle Clorin]

Sony could do a 3-band one in 1989.

What is it that seems to make a proper stereo DAC with just 7 more bands too much to ask for in 2022?

No software interface required, a simple screen and a couple of front panel controls would do. Even be preferred actually.

Is it too difficult? Too niche? Both? Something else?

Roon does it better, rip CD to hardisk and stream everything, no need for hardware eq when it can be done from the IPad

 

[Rednaxela]

Seems that you should buy a RME DAC ;o)...

So do I.

Using EQAPO I've done a number of POCs recently showing that the 5-7 bands/channel of the RME would suffice for my use case. Wouldn't mind a couple more though and I know I'm not the only one. Of all the DSP duties listed in the ADI-2 manual on page 16, I believe I could happily live without a few if that would free up processing power for some additional PEQ bands. Not at all complaining though! I'm eternally thankful for RME offering this phenomenal product to the world, and may end up owning one myself.

With this thread I just like to understand what would be possible if things were kept as simple as in the 1989 Sony pre/pro while being implemented with 2022 silicon. For the record I owned its successor for a while. Functionally I think they're among the most amazing consumer audio products ever created.

 

[Rednaxela]

Roon does it better, rip CD to hardisk and stream everything, no need for hardware eq when it can be done from the IPad

Isn't Roon eventually just another digital source? Do you run your TV sound through Roon for instance? Not against software EQ by the way, but in my use case it has to come after the (digital) source selection I'm afraid.

 

[MCH]

Isn't Roon eventually just another digital source? Do you run your TV sound through Roon for instance? Not against software EQ by the way, but in my use case it has to come after the (digital) source selection I'm afraid.

I see a raspberry pi in your future...

 

[Plcamp]

Seems that you should buy a RME DAC ;o)...

Yes I have frequently looked at that.

I also found my minidsp2x4hd good, as it has four remote presets (that I used for common things like bass up 2 db). The Minidsp flex version might be good choice to get decent performance, and I am leaning that way.