Behringer DEQ2496

I have ordered one of these for a play. Tenson has also mentioned that he has one a few times.

At first glance, a graphic equaliser, which will have the neurotic audiophile running for the hills.

However, look a little closer, and things get more interesting.

First off, a fair few people have been making a big deal about room equalisation, examples being the TacT RCS and the Tag AVR32. The behringer DEQ can as well, for a lot less money.

By an inferior method? Well.... no. The AVR32 uses an AD SHARC processor to do the equalisation on 5.1 channels. The Behringer has two SHARC processors to allow it to perform more complex operations on stereo data. The Behringer has a microphone input (with built-in phantom power) for room EQ, which it can perform automatically.

Other options are things like an expander (opposite of dynamic compression), compressor, etc.

It will also perform A/D and D/A conversions with chips from AKM. The AKM AK4393 DAC chip is the heart of the M-audio superDAC (although until I take the lid off my DEQ when it arrives, I don't know what exact DAC chip is used in it).

You can also set the display to show needle-type VU Meters. Or a 61-band real-time FFT...

I shall report further... ETA is tuesday.

 

Hi,

Nice choice. I have one too. In the end I choose to attack the problems from an acoustic angle, but that's another story. I wrote a pretty extensive paper on how to use EQ's LIKE the Behringer for room EQ, it's posted in my Yahoo Group....

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Thunderstone_technical/files/TL Circuits/Ultracurve/

Sorry, subscription to the group to view is enforced by Yahoo, not by me.

Google it..... ;-)

Ciao T

 

Nice to see you taking the plunge Isaac- the Behringer kit is excellent value for money.

Equal to the parametrics used in many of today's AV processors? Quite possibly. A Tact on the cheap? Definately not. But it can go some way to aleviating the worst excesses of your room acoustics.

 

It certainly doesn't offer the full range of room eq capability of the Tact RCS, but my point was that it wasn't some poor relation to the accepted room EQ of the AVR32. Certainly for £225 delivered, new, it offers amazing value for money on spec alone. How it sounds remains to be seen of course...

 

Sounds very interesting and a good price too. I reckon though Isaac if you got rid of those rubbish speakers you could get your system sorted much easier

 

yer them kestrels is pants innit

 

No doubt I shall discover how pants in a few days

 

Mike,

As you know I use two outputs from my preamp. One goes direct to the power amp and the Nonsuch 4s, the other to the active filter, the bass power amplifier and Little Awesomes.

Could I fit this Behringer between the preamp and active filter? Might it even replace the filter (you probably remember what it has to do)?

Just curious.

 

Yes, it could steve, but...

It works in the digital domain. Thus the output of your preamp will be converted to digital, EQed, then converted back to analogue. This might be an unacceptable compromise.

 

Behringer also do a nice "Digital Speaker Management System" the DCX2496 all singing and dancing x-over etc.... cheap too..

Regards

 

At least all the digitizing would be kept below 150Hz.

 

Steve,

Well, I'm not mike, but the Behring could do exactly that job, except replacing a full LPF. You might be better off with the DCX2496, but that will need modifications on-board to match sensible HiFi System levels.

I had the DEQ 2496 at both shows I did this year as reserve (I never needed to use it) for just such a job as you describe (on the subs). Luckily enough, I got a resonably flat response in either room so didn't need the DEQ. Luckily enough Dipoles are mostly immune to room problems in the bass.

Ciao T

 

Thanks T.

Would the mods be tricky/costly? If I could supply a unit that does the filtering plus parametric equalization for a similar price or less than my current filter, it would be worth considering.

 

I'm sure that you know that it will tell you about your room and not your speakers! Best of luck with it and lets us know what you think, in pro-audio-land Behringer is the alba of studio gear but in the main hifi guys have mostly opposing views to the studio guys.

Dominic

 

Hi,

They do involve of SMD components. You could upgrade the Op-Amp's as well, while you are in there....

The key issue is that the DCX requires +22dbu (around 10V) for digital full scale and equally outputs +22dbu for digital full scale. That means that it has a full scale level around 20db above that of "full scale" on a domestic HiFi Amplifier and hence of the theortically available 112db db dynamic range per output 20db will be lost.

The DEQ has a switchable input sensitivity of +12dbu or +22dbu.

The DCX can do an awfull lot of stuff and if suitably modified it is not bad at all. There is a yahoo discussion group about it here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DCX2496/

There you can also find full schematics.

I personally find that it would be possible to convert the DCX to use Single Ended RCA inputs and outputs at normal domestic HiFi full scale levels with not too much effort. In fact, I have considered developing this as a mod and offering it through 3D Sonics, but nothing firm yet....

Ciao T

 

dom - it was actually a vague dig at lordsummit, who's system I'm going to hear soon (as he and penance have the same speakers I do).

 

Sorry us Meadowlark Mafia should try and avoid in-jokes. Mind you I'm not sure I'm a member yet as I don't know the handshake

 

Its a dirty shake!

 

we got one off em in our control rack at work,works pretty well on the rear delays (renkus heinz sr1's) l,doing both eq and delay duties,the stereoo width thingy is fun and old style vu meter looks rather nice.olny problem it tends to crash if you run the real time anyliser for any length of time

 

some thoughts on the deq

Good Morning Ladies,

OK, first the DEQ is an interesting gadget, but:

It's low high/pass parametric is somewhat limited by 6/12dB slopes.

The frequency setting in parametric mode is rather coarse: around 5Hz resolution @ 50Hz, which can making killing high Q peaks a bit hit and miss.

It operates at "pro" levels which are a tad hot for consumer gear.

The room analysis/correction feature has given me rather ugly results (and the mike, although good, isn't calibrated.)

Next, the DCX (crossover) is a good gadget with flexible routing and much better crossover options compared to the DEQ (sharper slopes and different alignment). You can add L+R to generate a signal for a sub, and you have 6 outputs to play with.

The DCX has digital and analog in, but only analog out (balanced at "pro" levels).

Next up. Behringer have made it easy to use single ended. You tether -ve to ground. This works on input and outputs, the outputs get a +6dB boost though.

To bring the levels back down for a consumer device, you can use the MX882 which is an 8 channel mixer splitter which can be configured to attenuate.

I use a CD transport(AES/EBU)->DEQ(AES/EBU)->DCX(balanced)->MX882(single-ended)->6 channel preamp.

The deq does parametric for the room - the feedback destroyer and width are bypassed (and the graphic isn't used.)

the dcx high passes the L/R, phase shifts it, and time aligns it to arrive with the sub; its also sums L+R and low passes that.

L+R+sub get attenuated in an MX882 and passed into a six channel sony TA-P9000ES for remote volume control.

After that there's a couple of Bryston power paks driving some quads 989's and a Paradigm servo-15.

I measured the room/speakers using ETF and a calibrated mike - I leave nulls alone and just tame the peaks.

It sounds fantastic, but then 989's are pretty damn good to start with. The extra bass from the sub helps out on occassion.

I leave the RTA analyser on and when playing music the 3 boxes light up like a christmas tree.

I'm in the process of getting my hands on a TacT RCS 2.2X despite the best efforts of their "Internet Marketing Manager"

Cheers,

MF