What about hardware EQ nowadays?

[composer]

Dear friends

I was looking for an hardware EQ but, unlike in the past, it is very hard to find new ones: the making of hardware eq's for "home" listening (not for studio purposes, of course) has dropped during the years.
Now everything is handled by the computer and its software. But what if one wants to correct music coming from radio stations FM or digital (they often need some) vinyl or CD player (or even cassette)? It would be inconvenient to pass everything through an audio interface...

Where are the old hardware home listening EQ with preset storage?
Are there affordable ones produced today with some storage possibility? I mean pure eq, not DSP room correction tools, and, possibly, no 33 physical sliders per channel....
Should we only look to devices of the past? Are there some that are not "hiss" machines?

Finally, what models (budget or "less budget") would you suggest?

I'm quite off the knowledge of the market and, with pretty noob spirit, I ask you here...
I am very used to EQ myself the music I listen to. So, if I'd upgrade my old 90's stuff I wish I had an EQ with it.

 

[fpitas]

There's the old DEQ2496 from Behringer. Not sure what your budget is, though, nor a lot of other details.

 

[abdo123]

What do you mean with storage possibility? Like saving presets?

How many channels do you want to process? What types and number of inputs do you need?

 

[composer]

What do you mean with storage possibility? Like saving presets?

How many channels do you want to process? What types and number of inputs do you need?

Of course I mean saving presets. Sorry if I wasn't clear
I just need to settle one single EQ line for one stereo channel (as it was in the old days).

 

[abdo123]

It looks like a MiniDSP Flex is what you’re looking for.

 

[fpitas]

I believe that some version of the miniDSP is also a candidate, although I don't know a lot about them.

 

[sergeauckland]

I use the DEQ2496, and can't fault it. Does everything I want in a 'fit & forget' manner. Not the easiest of devices if you want to use it 'actively', i.e. make changes on-the-fly, something with real physical faders and knobs I find easier, but that's true, I think, of any menu-driven device.

S.

 

[Dial]

That's why I treasure my Marantz EQ 130 (graphic) and my Sintron SAT 24 (parametric). I can't do that as well with Audacity.

 

[FeddyLost]

Fully analog it might be something like Rolls RPQ 160b or ART EQ355 ...

 

[fpitas]

You really need to tell us a few things. For example: how broad do you want PEQ? Old analog stuff was 1/3 octave, Q of 4.3 or so, but that's rather clumsy. The Behringer will get you to a Q of 10, better than 1/6 octave. Not sure what miniDSP does. Balanced or unbalanced I/O? 1U rackmount, or ? Price?

 

[Matthias McCready]

There's the old DEQ2496 from Behringer. Not sure what your budget is, though, nor a lot of other details.

Out of curiosity why would you want this in your chain? (rant warning )

When I started out in live sound, not with stellar PA's mind you, I noted that most Behringer analog products added a significant noise floor, or did not work as advertised or had premature problems. In fact I have never used a piece of Behringer equipment that did not have 1 of these 3 problems (Graphic EQ's, Semi Parametric EQ's, Comps, Gates, DI's, Speakers, small format analog mixers, large format analog mixers, digital consoles, headphone amps, personal mixers etc). To be fair I do have a few friends who like their amps, but I have never used them.

From a live-sound perspective other than their digital consoles, which are fine except for the premature hardware failure which does not affect the sound, they are on my do not use list, granted I work on much nicer systems now than when I started off.

----

However in the "hi-fi" world I have been baffled by how often I run into Behringer. Locally I once met a guy who had a crappy Behringer graphic EQ in the same setup that had "moose venom" cables and other such nonsense.

----

Granted I do have an extremely strong bias against Behringer (Music Tribe), as they did a lot of IP theft to make their products (taking apart someone elses product, copying the schematic and sometimes even the color scheme, and cutting corners). These days there is less IP theft, but they still make me angry as they buy up some great brands, to use their IP and basically kill them off (kill products, shutdown dealer-networks to sell on Amazon, taking away support)

Midas for example, used to be one of the most respectable live sound console brands; these days you can still buy a $30k console from Midas, but what production-shop is going to do that knowing there is no tech support available? Other console brands of that calibre have 24/7 tech support with real engineers, Midas now has a "forum" to which you need to make an account and usually you will get no reply, because they don't have enough people to check it. RIP Midas, TC Electronic, and Turbosound. Sad days.

(Rant Over )

 

[fpitas]

Out of curiosity why would you want this in your chain? (rant warning )

When I started out in live sound, not with stellar PA's mind you, I noted that most Behringer analog products added a significant noise floor, or did not work as advertised or had premature problems. In fact I have never used a piece of Behringer equipment that did not have 1 of these 3 problems (Graphic EQ's, Semi Parametric EQ's, Comps, Gates, DI's, Speakers, small format analog mixers, large format analog mixers, digital consoles, headphone amps, personal mixers etc). To be fair I do have a few friends who like their amps, but I have never used them.

From a live-sound perspective other than their digital consoles, which are fine except for the premature hardware failure which does not affect the sound, they are on my do not use list, granted I work on much nicer systems now than when I started off.

----

However in the "hi-fi" world I have been baffled by how often I run into Behringer. Locally I once met a guy who had a crappy Behringer graphic EQ in the same setup that had "moose venom" cables and other such nonsense.

----

Granted I do have an extremely strong bias against Behringer (Music Tribe), as they did a lot of IP theft to make their products (taking apart someone elses product, copying the schematic and sometimes even the color scheme, and cutting corners). These days there is less IP theft, but they still make me angry as they buy up some great brands, to use their IP and basically kill them off (kill products, shutdown dealer-networks to sell on Amazon, taking away support)

Midas for example, used to be one of the most respectable live sound console brands; these days you can still buy a $30k console from Midas, but what production-shop is going to do that knowing there is no tech support available? Other console brands of that calibre have 24/7 tech support with real engineers, Midas now has a "forum" to which you need to make an account and usually you will get no reply, because they don't have enough people to check it. RIP Midas, TC Electronic, and Turbosound. Sad days.

(Rant Over )

Lol. Rant all you like. I replaced my DCX2496 eventually with an RCF DX 2006, not because of the noise floor, but because sometimes (admittedly, rarely) I heard digitization artifacts. In my case the noise floor was abated almost entirely by proper gain distribution; I put a 14dB balanced pad after the DCX, before the amp to the horn.

 

[sergeauckland]

Out of curiosity why would you want this in your chain? (rant warning )

Because it does a perfectly adequate job of equalising my 'speakers to +-1dB on axis. That's all I need an equaliser to do, screwed into my rack and just work. Noise and distortion are both well below audibility, so why not use it?

S.

 

[fpitas]

Behringer did have some power supply issues, and units failed either out of the box, or in a short time. But my DCX2496 was used daily for 11 years until it was replaced, but it still works fine.

 

[MRC01]

There's the old DEQ2496 from Behringer. Not sure what your budget is, though, nor a lot of other details.

Out of curiosity why would you want this in your chain? (rant warning )

When I started out in live sound, not with stellar PA's mind you, I noted that most Behringer analog products added a significant noise floor, or did not work as advertised or had premature problems....

The Behringer DEQ2496 measures perfectly clean in pure digital mode (digital in, digital out) - its parametric EQ does exactly what it says without adding any noise or distortion. 100% transparency within the limits of 96-24. Most of us using a DEQ2496 are using it in this mode. Its DA/AD converters aren't the best, but they're not terrible, and in pure digital mode they're entirely bypassed.

Sadly, the DEQ2496 is hard to find and used prices are around $1 kilobuck about 3 times what I paid for mine new several years ago.

 

[fpitas]

The Behringer DEQ2496 measures perfectly clean in pure digital mode (digital in, digital out) - its parametric EQ does exactly what it says without adding any noise or distortion. 100% transparency within the limits of 96-24. Most of us using a DEQ2496 are using it in this mode. Its DA/AD converters aren't the best, but they're not terrible, and in pure digital mode they're entirely bypassed.

Sadly, the DEQ2496 is hard to find and used prices are around $1 kilobuck about 3 times what I paid for mine new several years ago.

Odd you say that. I'm seeing it listed new a lot of places.

 

[Matthias McCready]

Because it does a perfectly adequate job of equalising my 'speakers to +-1dB on axis. That's all I need an equaliser to do, screwed into my rack and just work. Noise and distortion are both well below audibility, so why not use it?

S.

The Behringer DEQ2496 measures perfectly clean in pure digital mode (digital in, digital out) - its parametric EQ does exactly what it says without adding any noise or distortion. 100% transparency within the limits of 96-24. Most of us using a DEQ2496 are using it in this mode. Its DA/AD converters aren't the best, but they're not terrible, and in pure digital mode they're entirely bypassed.

Sadly, the DEQ2496 is hard to find and used prices are around $1 kilobuck about 3 times what I paid for mine new several years ago.

Ah due to being to busy ranting... I missed the digital part. Shame on me.

Sound quality and signal to noise is fine on their digital stuff.

I still hold firm on avoiding their analog stuff, which is what I have seen a lot of in racks around these parts over the years...

 

[mhardy6647]

Hardware EQ in the sense of...

Still readily available.

 

[composer]

You really need to tell us a few things. For example: how broad do you want PEQ? Old analog stuff was 1/3 octave, Q of 4.3 or so, but that's rather clumsy. The Behringer will get you to a Q of 10, better than 1/6 octave. Not sure what miniDSP does. Balanced or unbalanced I/O? 1U rackmount, or ? Price?

You overestimate my clear ideas

I have "few clues" and I wanted to casual talk about to catch some. First in order to know if hardware EQ for the hi fi domain are still produced and there's something new in the market.

Indeed I try somehow to fulfill your legit queries (my answers may be inconsistent)

Something from say, 10 to 14 bands, if graphic.
Whatever balanced or unbalanced
Say around 300-500 $/€
Even "vintage" if valuable for the purpose (and not excessively noisy)

But every recommendation beyond this is welcome.

 

[MRC01]

Yeah, well technically speaking, the DEQ2496 may be considered "software", it's just software running on a chip like an ADAU1463 or similar chip.
Hardware EQ would be analog with potentiometers.
In this sense, all DSP is software. But we think of software as running on a computer or application, and "hardware" as everything else.