Hi Scott,
The OP asked about DSP EQ, but the OP's problem statement was "I’ve found phono stages that A/D to do RIAA EQ in DSP, then D/A right back to output, and I can find phono stages that have a digital output, but I can’t find confirmation of a phono stage that does both "
This unit does indeed support both digi and analog outputs, according to the manual. It also doesn't circumvent using EQ in the digital domain to make fine tuned adjustments given that one loading doesn't work for all cartridges and that post EQ allows a broader adjustment range for VTA.
I appreciate that not everyone will find this interesting or helpful but I hope some do, and that was my only intent.
Hi jdubs,
At this price, expectations are not high, but NE5532's can easily be used and are good enough for the Benchmark DAC1. There are many examples of LM833 based phono eqs going back to the 80s. There's no inherent reason it has to be junk so I'd be interested in any test results, please share if you know of any. Users aren't reporting the usual issues that would be seen at this price: pot mistracking, ground loops, noise, obvious distortion.
I went with the ESI mainly because of 3rd party test results verifying its performance, its 24 bits (reducing windows dither on spdif input), and I already have a nice phono pre