Analog Vs Digital Eq

Hello,
I have a technical question about equalizers.
I’ve been keeping an eye on it for two or three years now, because I thought it was really easy to tune the headphones to your needs with something like this.

Personally, I am sometimes too analogue as a person in certain things.
I like digital things, no question, but when they start to overwhelm me, it gets on my nerves.

I think every 6 months I download Apo and realise what a piece of shit it really is.
At least for me.
Either something doesn’t work, or if it does, it sounds so bad.

Years ago I bought the Schiit Loki and in less than 5 minutes I had everything the way I wanted it.
But the little Loki is only a small 4-band EQ that lets you roughly adjust things.
On my tube amplifier it causes a humming noise when I put it near, aaaarrrgggg really.:weary::weary::weary:

So you keep looking and looking and you find mostly old stuff, a lot of it made in China, or expensive event technology that I don’t really need.
Although the event technology would have exactly what I would like.
But you can usually find it all in the old 80-90 equalizers.

I’ve dealt with DSP minimally, I already have a Dac so why run it through a Dac again?

My question is actually which is better to let a signal pass through an eq and accept a “little” sound loss.
Or is it better to play around on the pc again and reduce the looping of the signal?

I mean, 20-30 years ago it was also done, why isn’t it done today?
What is your opinion?

If you want a physical eq, look into pro equipment. Buy you’re gonna pay pro-rates for it.

But the reason why pros use them is that they’re reliable; when you have money riding on a performance, you don’t want your digital system to crap out and ruin it all. Although there are some amazing advances in digital systems in reliability so many high-end setups use digital stuff.

Honestly, why not a hybrid system? I think something like a miniDSP can have different EQs set from different outputs.

I prefer analog EQ’s as it is quicker to dial in what you need.

That said, a good DSP does the job of parametric and graphic in a single box, and has the option to save presets for later.

I feel the same way, apart from the fact that I grew up with these things.
I think the direct feedback is simply better and can compensate directly.

I also looked at Dsp, but I can’t quite get my head around it. The outputs look like they need coax or is that deceptive?
In the photos I see Out 12345 and I’m not sure if you connect both channels to one or if you mean 2 channels each for left and right. So if Out 1 is left channel and Out 2 is right channel.
What also annoys me is that I might have to set both channels the same on the PC without copy and paste.

In the end, the question is that it doesn’t seem to matter whether I loop through the signal at the analogue equaliser or at the Dsp. Loop-through is loop-through, or am I mistaken?

In terms of performance and flexibility you cannot beat the dsp, but if you really like the analog feel good options on a buget are professional equalizer usually used in studios and live events, like:

Behringer FBQ800 (compact and stereo) 40 euro
dbx 231s (31 band but dual mono) 150 euro

I personally used the behringer and is really nice.

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Is there any good software solution that’s a little simpler than APO?
I’ve spend so long following different tutorials and can’t get it to work properly except for with PC Eqalizer which is extremely limited in it’s functionality…

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What DSP in particular? There are the small home use ones and the 19" rack units from Xilica, DBX and the like.

the EQ in Voicemeeter is quite powerful and easy to use. Not sure about quality.

I think he’s referencing the miniDSP 2x4/2x8

the EQ in Voicemeeter is quite powerful and easy to use. Not sure about quality.

Does it allow for the Q-thingy (idk the professional term. it’s where the EQ-band goes wider or narrower)?

IIRC Q is the bandwidth modifier.

Exactly what I’m lookign for! Will have a look tonight if it sounds good on me Sundara’s :smiley:

I think the small Dsp would be enough if I had to decide.

@lafonte
I saw the Behringer, it didn’t look bad.
If it could go a little lower in the first frequency reports, I would be satisfied.

At the moment I have the Schiit Loki on it, which unfortunately causes a little hum.
I got hold of a cheap Eq from Renkforce on Ebay.
https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/voelkner_stereo_graphic_equalizer_hve_2020_bestno_080_360.html

If it’s good, I’ll keep it until it’s no longer working, or put it in the living room.
DBX 215S 15 Band when I have thought about how and where to install it.
Maybe the desk will have to grow another 1 metre first.:see_no_evil:
But the dbx 231s also looks interesting,probably one of the two this year.
Thanks for the tip,:wink::+1::v:

Usually the first and the last band are shelfs not bells so it should increase/decrease all the frequency until 20Hz/20kHz but I’m not sure at the 100% about that the dbx are all great products I’ve been using compressor preamps and eq and never a problem with them.

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I thought differently.
The Lcd2c goes down to 10hz and I thought the sooner you can go down, the better it will be.
But most likely you won’t hear it anyway, but nice to have if you do.
Certainly a simple gimmick in the end, also on my part.:see_no_evil:

Hello,
I received the equalizer from Ebay yesterday and connected it after a thorough cleaning.
My assumption was right about the part that you have more control in the bass range, which is what I really wanted, and also really makes sense, from the settings I really got it clean.

What bothers me a bit is that certain areas of the playback that you normally hear are predominantly masked when you connect the equalizer. you can just hear them. they are no longer as clear and details are lost.
Which is really a bit tricky.
Because I’m not sure if the equalizer has a shot or if it’s so old that it can’t reproduce it properly any more.

My conclusion at the moment is a bit sobering in this respect.
Because that’s what bothers me, otherwise it would fit. it would be too good to be true.

I’m also not 100% sure whether this is caused by the signal being looped through again or a “battle between old and new electronics”, so that the harmony doesn’t quite fit together.
So it’s more like fresh capacitors against old ones.
Which could be a possible cause.
The fact is, however, that I don’t have anything like that on the Loki.

To rule it out again, I would have to get something new, probably anyway, if I want to work in the 10-15 band range.

I also looked into Dsp a bit more, but it doesn’t seem to be what I want.
Depending on the classification of the Dsp, you can do more in terms of software. The higher the Dsp device, the better the possibilities to do something on the software side.
Typical marketing again.

It looks like the Loki will stay until I’m ready to do something about it again. Maybe I’ll just try a different Rca cable because of the humming noise. That will be the cheapest solution at the moment.