Behringer DEQ2496 Ultracurve Pro DSP Review

[andreasmaaan]

I wish there were something on the market for hifi more stripped down without the analog converters and connections, smaller, and priced well. I am guessing PEQ will be included in more DACs and amps in the coming years, and that will work too. I really like the idea of a device like this that can go between a digital source and DAC and add PEQ without needing to go through ADC/DAC.

Something like this?

 

[sam_adams]

Here's one of my units that likes to blow up.
Multi-comxl4600 I beleive.

The red arrows point to the culprits. It seems that all their analog supplies were of the same design.

 

[Helicopter]

Something like this?

Awesome. Thanks!

 

[andreasmaaan]

Awesome. Thanks!

They actually have a number of quite similar products, you might want to have a look at their website and see if anything else there suits you better.

 

[DavidMcRoy]

Performance seems like what you’d expect. I use a (bypassable) Behringer FX2000 processor to expand dynamic range while listening to some cable TV channels and FM HDRadio stations. It does the job and doesn’t screw-up stereo imaging (I suspect the 2 channels are ganged to prevent that, which is good practice.)

 

[Helicopter]

They actually have a number of quite similar products, you might want to have a look at their website and see if anything else there suits you better.

I had glanced over it before but I missed this because SPDIF and RCA use the same connectors. For some reason I thought they might use Toslik outs. I guess I didn't give it a ton of thought. This is exactly what I want, and I had been considering the DEQ2496 for the same purpose.

 

[andreasmaaan]

I had glanced over it before but I missed this because SPDIF and RCA use the same connectors. For some reason I thought they might use Toslik outs. I guess I didn't give it a ton of thought. This is exactly what I want, and I had been considering the DEQ2496 for the same purpose.

Good to hear

 

[BYRTT]

Same here. I use it for digital parametric EQ, with named presets for my speakers & headphones. Got it about 4 years ago, still works great.

I wonder if its pure digital section could be tested. For example, give it a known digital signal, pass it through and see if it modifies it. Add noise (it can dither 16, 20 or 24 bits, triangular or noise shaped) and check the noise profile. Apply a few parametric EQ bands and see if they cause any side effects other than the EQ itself.

All in the pure digital domain, of course, no A/D or D/A converters.

I speculate that it would have excellent performance for these pure digital functions; its weakness is the D/A and A/D converters.

Look after if you own a soundcard that offer digital I/O side by side to the usual analog ones or try borrow one from a friend because going pure digital we can diy benchmark using free REW or Arta so there is no need to waste Amir's time because in pure digital loopback we have excellent S/N ratios compared to AP gear and can have some fun.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Bought one of these in 2007. Used it for EQ/room correction with their ECM8000 Mic. Most horrible UI ever. Basically, I ran pink noise, and had it do a correction curve to flatten everything out which I then ran my digital feed through whenever I played digital material before outputting it to my Benchmark DAC1.

My memory is it was transparent as long as everything was kept in the digital realm. Otherwise not so much. Had good connectivity.

Replaced it with the original TACT room correction unit in 2008 which was a much more effective unit for me. It (Behringer 2496 EQ) cost around $200 when I bought it. Sold it for like $50 in 2012 when I downsized. It had been gathering dust on my shelves for four years.

 

[Robbo99999]

In terms of a 2 channel DSP product, I'd quite like to see the cheapest miniDSP product tested:
https://www.minidsp.com/products/minidsp-in-a-box/minidsp-2x4

I'm using that just between my TV & active speakers for RoomEQ purposes for TV/Movies. If I remember rightly it's supposed to be in the low 90's for SINAD according to the datasheet, or was that SNR. Either way, when I look in the configurable software plugin when it's being used, if it isn't accepting any output from my TV (ie TV on channel that doesn't produce sound) then it tells me an input of around -85dB on the Input Level in the software, so I suppose this might be loosely related to the units SNR or SINAD although it might also be influenced by my TV's cleanliness of analog out. Either way, I'd quite like to see this cheap but useful product tested here, as I think it's the most cost effective means of 2 channel 'standalone' DSP.

 

[BYRTT]

In terms of a 2 channel DSP product, I'd quite like to see the cheapest miniDSP product tested.....

So far maybe get a feel its probably not any better or below these so it could be a pure >24bit headless panther in that race game ..

Amir's previous AP unit: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...urements-and-minidsp-2x4-hd-dsp-and-dac.2674/

Amir's current AP unit: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...8-8-channel-usb-dac-review.10123/#post-275814

Tom Christansen (Neurochrome): https://neurochrome.com/pages/minidsp-4x10hd

 

[tomtoo]

Big difference in price.
https://m.thomann.de/de/behringer_deq2496_ultracurve_pro.htm?o=&search=1603519626

 

[martin900]

I'm looking at maybe getting a Behringer CX2310 crossover, I wonder if it's reasonable to expect similar performance to this - they're almost good enough which for the price would probably be okay for me. Sadly Behringer doesn't seem to publish detailed specifications anywhere I can find it.

Can't recommend these, it's an analog crossover and mine was noticeably noisy. Would work for a subwoofer but not for high efficiency speakers.

 

[wwenze]

Can we appreciate how this thing had this kind of performance 15 years ago or earlier, as well as DSP capabilities. (20 bits of linearity!)

Even back then, the difference between people who bought the wrong stuff and people who bought the right stuff is massive. When you consider this is what audiophiles were buying and saying how good it is to stay free of DSP and such.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/dac-hacks-mods-zhaolu-oritek-dac.9479/

 

[geoemm]

How does these compare to minidsp 2x4 HD as they are similarly priced in EU

 

[wwenze]

The red arrows point to the culprits. It seems that all their analog supplies were of the same design.

View attachment 89262

Can't see clearly, are those supposed to be snubbing capacitors? Ceramics' part time job here is to fail shorted and turn into a fireball.

Are snubbers even needed at this level of audio performance.

 

[LeftCoastTim]

When I was looking for a DSP for room correction I ruled out the MiniDSP due to its reliance on software. The user interface is pretty terrible on these, but it’s built into the machine, which is a big positive for me. So after some looking around, I found one on EBay for $180. After using it, I liked it so much, I bought a second one from the same seller for the same price. The seller was trying to unload a bunch of units at that time.

I think they are great.

 

[Dudi]

I use Behringer DEQ2496 for a long time ago and its analogue performance is not good at all but is is very well done in digital-digital domain. Since digital room correction is an important part of the audio chain, it could be nice to figure out some measurements about Behringer's digital performance. A similar digital processor was measured some weeks ago and landed in the not recommended category since analogue part was not ok. These equipments for digital-digital audio for living room applications, I believe. It gives me all time good results with parametric/graphical eq and it has feedback destroyer, stereo space widener, rotator and so many other functions. I'm just thinking about how can we compare digital audio processors ? For example DEQ2496 use IIR filers with hardware support, other DSPs like Volumio BruteFIR software use FIR filters, who knows a way to compare their performance on output audio ? They should have a new "Room DSP" category next to DAC, speaker and amplifier scoreboards, IMO.

This equipment has one negatives in my usecase, Toslink optical is the only In/out I can use. No USB in/out and AES/EBU for professional users, but RPI4 streamers does not have. Please Behringer in case of update, add USB to the list of ports.

 

[Bamboszek]

With modified analog output stage it seems that is possible to reach much better performance. About 10dB less THD.
https://www.behringermods.com/proof.html
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/dig...improvement-stock-dcx2496-13.html#post4424612

 

[digicidal]

Sure it's twice as expensive and less flexible, but if I was only looking for EQ/RC in the digital domain I'd definitely drop the extra coin on the minidsp SHD Studio over something like this. Nice to know it is at least competent for it's price-range and intended application however.