Equalizer in a Hi Fi system

Actually never mind, @mirolab. The dealer at Guitar Center called and gave me my requested test results. I asked for a number of things to be done. There is disproportionate hiss in right channel. It’s audible with quieter passages of music. That’s not acceptable to me. I asked them to service it and get back with me. We’ll see. But not now. Sticking with the Michelangelo buildout. And my 2 wonderful Charter Oaks. 

@mirolab , can you or anyone else enlighten me on how sound engineers can run several pieces of gear in series in their chain, sometimes like 8, and not have to worry about degradation of signal. This is as opposed to we audiophiles worrying about only one extra box in the chain. If I chained 3 pro EQs together and did mids on one, air band another, etc. would I have viable result?  Or do the pros use special consoles for daisychaining that prevents degradation?  It’s common practice to use a few EQs in the production process!

jtcf

Thanks for the reply. I looked at it.  I am not sure though.  I looked at the specs and S/N ratio of 100db is not that great.  If you put your ear right next to your tweeters (as in like practically touching them) with your ear, do you hear ANY hiss whatsoever?  Please be honest! 

I ask because I am doubtful that the eq would be silent in that manner. Currently I hear absolutely no hiss whatsoever when my eq's are out of the loop if I touch my ear on the tweeters, but all the components have higher S/N ratios of minimum 127db or above.  27 decibels is a lot and perhaps the difference between hiss or no hiss.  I am going to buy several once I find the right one and want to be 100% sure to avoid the hassle of returns.

@ellajeanelle , if I may comment. I know you’re talking to @jtcf. Putting your ear up to the tweeter and hearing hiss that’s low enough shouldn’t be a deal breaker. If you have quality hi fi gear with low noise floor a slight uptick in hiss from an equalizer may be acceptable. Particularly if the music sounds BETTER with the EQ and the hiss is NOT HEARD when listening to, for example, quiet passage in classical work of well recorded piano solo. Yes, with my CO I hear low level hiss vs bypass when ear is literally on tweeter. But so what?  When I play classical or piano record fairly loud (like 50% on my Bryston amp) I DON’T hear hiss from listening position. Can toggle EQ in and out and no obvious change in noise. Low is low. It’s worth the gain in tonality, harmonics and timbre you get from EQing. Look, I had a dead silent phono pre that I got rid of for a noisier Graham Slee Ascension phono pre that sounds way way better. It’s the same thing. In the end, only you can decide how much hiss is acceptable. I play Yiruma great piano recordings for people and they are amazed at what I can do to improve the way that instrument sounds through my system with high end analog balanced EQ. Remember balanced when the music is playing helps tremendously with noise floor also. If I put my ear at the speaker while playing music will I hear any added hiss?  Really doubtful I’ll hear or notice. But I might get tinnitus or an earache!

@tlcocks Thanks for checking on that PEQ-1.... Yeah I had a noise problem pop up on mine.  There's an op-amp chip responsible for each EQ band and I swapped them around until I found the offending ones.  I moved the noisy one from the 2k band to the Sub band and the noise wasn't noticeable down there.  I got Mike to send me several new op-amps and I replaced them myself, rather than send the unit back.  I also rewired the outputs, as my unit was inverting phase.... a terrible thing in a studio when you are trying to do parallel processing!  Mike trusted me by then, and told me what I needed to do.