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- Dec 9, 2020
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Hey all, this is my first 'review' so please be gentle It's not gonna be as detailed as Amir's, but outlines the imo most important characteristics of the device.
I don't know the age of this particular unit, as I got it as 'payment' for a job a while back. It has been discontinued, but I can find some listed online for as cheap as 50€.
The EQ comes with XLR, TRS and screw-on connectors. The mains cable is not removable. I really like the fact, that high- and low-cut can be set to an octave above/below our (typical) hearing respectively, but you can't disable them, which you will see in the response measurement.
Measurement chain is Topping D10b (channels summed) → DUT → E1DA Cosmos ADC (Mono, 4.5V sensitivity).
Bypass, 119.5db THD+N:
The path through the equalizer adds some mains hum (50Hz) and respective harmonics, but most of what you see is just the output of the DAC.
4V, 99.5db/99.1db THD+N:
This is pretty neat and beats the recently reviewed Schiit Lokius by 5db.
Noise spectrum to 4V reference:
I'm not sure how Amir defines dynamic range, but we have an input level of -107db. Is that it?
Frequency response:
I didn't manage to dial in the gain knob perfectly, but it's within like 0.1db or so. We're -0.5db at 20Hz and 20kHz, which is due to the high and low cut, which you can't switch off. Other than that, the response is impressively flat. All bands have been in use before and I just quickly set them back to their center position, where the fader snaps into place.
Here is what the filters look like:
It seems like the lables on the cuts are slightly off, since I really tried to get them just right. Still, setting it to 9k resulted in 9k being at -4db, instead of the expected -3db (as per butterworth standard). The filters are 2nd order (12b/octave).
I took THD vs level and THD vs frequency measurements, which I can't post at the moment, since I'm still trying to figure out how to transfer REW settings to a new PC. Additionally, these were taken on my Fireface, which only has a THD+N of 100db, so they were not very revealing in the first place.
It starts clipping at around 9V (+21dBU) at unity gain.
Conclusion: When I've used a graphic equalizer in the past I'd often be frustrated by the fact that the frequency I wanted to equalize is right between two bands. The Rane GE60 features enough bands to mitigate this issue, but I'd much prefer a parametric EQ in a well implemented dsp. Nonetheless, the GE60 is nice to work with and sounds transparent. Disregarding the mains hum, the noise level is at around -120db, so even high sensitivity PA loudspeakers will be relatively quiet. THD+N is good, even for HiFi use, so this could be a good option for someone on a budget.
That's all from me for now
I don't know the age of this particular unit, as I got it as 'payment' for a job a while back. It has been discontinued, but I can find some listed online for as cheap as 50€.
The EQ comes with XLR, TRS and screw-on connectors. The mains cable is not removable. I really like the fact, that high- and low-cut can be set to an octave above/below our (typical) hearing respectively, but you can't disable them, which you will see in the response measurement.
Measurement chain is Topping D10b (channels summed) → DUT → E1DA Cosmos ADC (Mono, 4.5V sensitivity).
Bypass, 119.5db THD+N:
The path through the equalizer adds some mains hum (50Hz) and respective harmonics, but most of what you see is just the output of the DAC.
4V, 99.5db/99.1db THD+N:
This is pretty neat and beats the recently reviewed Schiit Lokius by 5db.
Noise spectrum to 4V reference:
I'm not sure how Amir defines dynamic range, but we have an input level of -107db. Is that it?
Frequency response:
I didn't manage to dial in the gain knob perfectly, but it's within like 0.1db or so. We're -0.5db at 20Hz and 20kHz, which is due to the high and low cut, which you can't switch off. Other than that, the response is impressively flat. All bands have been in use before and I just quickly set them back to their center position, where the fader snaps into place.
Here is what the filters look like:
It seems like the lables on the cuts are slightly off, since I really tried to get them just right. Still, setting it to 9k resulted in 9k being at -4db, instead of the expected -3db (as per butterworth standard). The filters are 2nd order (12b/octave).
I took THD vs level and THD vs frequency measurements, which I can't post at the moment, since I'm still trying to figure out how to transfer REW settings to a new PC. Additionally, these were taken on my Fireface, which only has a THD+N of 100db, so they were not very revealing in the first place.
It starts clipping at around 9V (+21dBU) at unity gain.
Conclusion: When I've used a graphic equalizer in the past I'd often be frustrated by the fact that the frequency I wanted to equalize is right between two bands. The Rane GE60 features enough bands to mitigate this issue, but I'd much prefer a parametric EQ in a well implemented dsp. Nonetheless, the GE60 is nice to work with and sounds transparent. Disregarding the mains hum, the noise level is at around -120db, so even high sensitivity PA loudspeakers will be relatively quiet. THD+N is good, even for HiFi use, so this could be a good option for someone on a budget.
That's all from me for now