EQ help

[monsterman]

My gear will be arriving soon.
I have a TC 2000 15" in a 4 cube sealed box with a EP 2500 amp. I have Audioengine A5 powered bookshelf speakers. My room size is 1600 sf. I will be running the system off a Windows XP system from the onboard Gigabyte sound card. I was thinking I should explore the possibility getting an EQ to fix any potential problems. It would be nice to have the subwoofer setup squared away so I can focus on the rest of the system for the next few years. My budget is under $250 but if I don't need to spend that much....I won't.

I need help picking one out. I found a few on my local Craigslist. I linked the specs page for each along with price. Will any of these work for what I need them to do?


http://www.rane.com/pdf/old/seq30sman.pdf
RANE SEQ-30S - $120

http://www.dbxpro.com/215/215.php
DBX 215 GRAPHIC EQUALIZER - $100

http://www.dbxpro.com/1231/1231.php
DBX 1231 - $200 Seems like too much

http://www.rane.com/pe17.html
Rane PE 17- $200 Seems expensive

http://bfdguide.ws/
Behringer BFD 1124P -$75

 

[TLS Guy]

My gear will be arriving soon.
I have a TC 2000 15" in a 4 cube sealed box with a EP 2500 amp. I have Audioengine A5 powered bookshelf speakers. My room size is 1600 sf. I will be running the system off a Windows XP system from the onboard Gigabyte sound card. I was thinking I should explore the possibility getting an EQ to fix any potential problems. It would be nice to have the subwoofer setup squared away so I can focus on the rest of the system for the next few years. My budget is under $250 but if I don't need to spend that much....I won't.

I need help picking one out. I found a few on my local Craigslist. I linked the specs page for each along with price. Will any of these work for what I need them to do?


http://www.rane.com/pdf/old/seq30sman.pdf
RANE SEQ-30S - $120

http://www.dbxpro.com/215/215.php
DBX 215 GRAPHIC EQUALIZER - $100

http://www.dbxpro.com/1231/1231.php
DBX 1231 - $200 Seems like too much

http://www.rane.com/pe17.html
Rane PE 17- $200 Seems expensive

http://bfdguide.ws/
Behringer BFD 1124P -$75

I would go with the Behringer as first option, or the Rane.

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

Ditto what TLS said. Those two are parametric equalizers, which are the best kind.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Josuah]

You only want the Behringer because the others will limit your center frequency choices. You need a fully programmable parametric EQ for subwoofers.

 

[mtrycrafts]

... My room size is 1600 sf.

Is this correct or a typo? 1600 sqft is about 40x40.

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

You only want the Behringer because the others will limit your center frequency choices. You need a fully programmable parametric EQ for subwoofers.

The Rane PE 17's filters can be set anywhere in the audio spectrum from 10 Hz - 20 kHz.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Josuah]

The Rane PE 17's filters can be set anywhere in the audio spectrum from 10 Hz - 20 kHz.

Yeah, but there's only five filters.

 

[TLS Guy]

Yeah, but there's only five filters.

For mono which is what the OP needs, it is a 10 band equalizer, which should be fine.

It also comes from a decent US company, and they publish the circuit, so if you have trouble you have a decent chance of fixing it, unlike gear thrown together in China.

 

[monsterman]

Is this correct or a typo? 1600 sqft is about 40x40.

What I should have typed is 1600 cf. Thank you for pointing that out.

 

[Josuah]

For mono which is what the OP needs, it is a 10 band equalizer, which should be fine.

The PE-17 only appears to provide 5 filters. The SEQ-30S doesn't appear to be parametric. Am I confused?

 

[TLS Guy]

The PE-17 only appears to provide 5 filters. The SEQ-30S doesn't appear to be parametric. Am I confused?

Yes, http://www.rane.com/pe17.html

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

Yeah, but there's only five filters.

For mono which is what the OP needs, it is a 10 band equalizer, which should be fine.

Not exactly true – it only has one set of controls, so any filters will be applied to both channels. So five filters is all you can functionally get, even if you daisy-chain the two channels.

Which is usually plenty, actually. Perhaps 90% or more of the time, anyone who “needs” more than 4-5 filters for the subwoofer range is probably over-equalizing.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

The PE-17 only appears to provide 5 filters. The SEQ-30S doesn't appear to be parametric. Am I confused?

No, you are correct. The PE 17 is a five-band parametric. The SEQ-30 is a 30-band graphic EQ. IOW, it's not parametric.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[agarwalro]

I was thinking I should explore the possibility getting an EQ to fix any potential problems. ... My budget is under $250 but if I don't need to spend that much....I won't.

Since you are using your PC as the pre-amp and the audio card as the pre-outs, why not get a software parametric eq. Winamp and WMP have plugins that can give you this function.

 

[oppman99]

Since you are using your PC as the pre-amp and the audio card as the pre-outs, why not get a software parametric eq. Winamp and WMP have plugins that can give you this function.

Have you tried them out yourself? I've tried using the eq in the free version of Winamp and it makes things sound a touch fuzzy to my ears as opposed to using the eq on my AVR. Just wondering if anyone else has experienced the same thing.

 

[CraigV]

Applying the EQ in the computer would change the signal before it’s output to the amp/sub, as opposed to adding another piece of equipment into the chain of items reproducing the sound – IMO, a better way of doing things.

 

[agarwalro]

Have you tried them out yourself? I've tried using the eq in the free version of Winamp and it makes things sound a touch fuzzy to my ears as opposed to using the eq on my AVR. Just wondering if anyone else has experienced the same thing.

Nope. No personal experience with computer based audio eq-ing. Just presented that option as an afterthought while reading the thread.

Applying the EQ in the computer would change the signal before it’s output to the amp/sub, as opposed to adding another piece of equipment into the chain of items reproducing the sound – IMO, a better way of doing things.

Good point. I was thinking more on the lines of ease of use, less connections, etc.

 

[CraigV]

Just poking around, there’s all kinds of programs available. Here’s a parametric plug in for $69

http://www.anwida.com/purchase.asp

Scroll down to the PEQ1V

 

[monsterman]

That's an excellent route to explore. Could save money for those HTPC people. I would rather change the setting on the PC rather than physical hardware.

 

[WmAx]

The most powerful/versatile solution would be to use a Behringer DCX2496. It is a powerful DSP EQ (it is going to shame the EQ plug-ins for WinAmp, etc.) and is going to be far more useful than the models I have seen mentioned so far, that also offers powerful dynamic EQ functions and a sophisticated crossover system. It has a superb GUI so you can link it to your computer - and this GUI is about the best I have ever used - it's so easy and well layed out - you will love it. The DCX is like a swiss army knife for audio. It will let you do things that would otherwise be difficult to do/accomplish, and it will do them flawlessly. It also has 6 isolated outputs. You could even have dedicated F/X and EQ different on each output if you so desired. For example, you could simultaneously have two pairs of outputs - one set optimized for your speakers - and the other set optimized/EQed for your headphones - or for two separate speaker systems AND a headphone system. It's abilities are fairly unlimited - it is one of the best investments you can make for a serious audio system, and it is absolutely useful for a stand alone system or a computer based system.

-Chris