I have to agree about the benefits of using EQ. I also use the Behringer DEQ2494 (kept completely in the digital domain) in a highly resolving system, and I can tell you that it does wonders. I run a Krell transport into the Behringer, then into a Muse 296 processer (I wasn't quite as impressed with the Behringer's on-board DACS), then into a BAT preamp all kept in a balanced configuration. I was using a Z-Systems RDQ-1 before the Behringer, but the Behringer has much more functionality and a much better interface than the Z-Systems, and I could not hear any difference as long as the Behringer is kept completely in the digital domain. I think the Behringer is so inexpensive because they sell so many since their primary market is the pro audio industry. Anyone with doubts (I certainly did) should try one for themselves.
EQ's... why doesnt everybody have one?
Just browsing around the systems on this site, i knoticed that very few have equalizers. I realize some claim they introduce unacceptable noise but i would hardly call my Furman Q-2312, at %>.01 20Hz-40kHz, unacceptable. This $200 piece of equiptment ($100 on sale at musiciansfriend.com) replaces several thousand dollars in assembling a perfectly linear system in perfectly linear room, and in my opinion, accomplishes the task better than any room design could no matter how well engineered. It brought my system (onkyo reciever, NHT SB-3 speakers and Sony CD changer) to a level i could not have dreamed. It extends the SB-3's frequency response by at least 10 Hz to a satisfying 30 Hz without any rolloff or sacrifice in clarity, but the greatest improvement was definately in the Mid-range, around the SB-3s crossover frequency of 2.6kHz. The clarity of vocals, strings, guitars, brass... anything in this range rivals that of uneq'd systems costing well into the thousands of dollars... my total cost; $800. One of the more supprising differences is a marked improvement in immaging, it think this might have to do with eliminating several resonances in the right channel caused by my back wall (the left back wall has a curtain over it). The second my dad heard the difference he got on my computer to buy one for himself, he couldnt even wait to get back to his own, he then kicked me outa the listening chair and wouldnt get up for the better part of an hour.
-Dan-
-Dan-