Tone Control Unit's As Add On's

I liked Unity with Fatman (kenneth). I used to live near Broadwater Farm back in the late 70's and early 80's near Bruce Grove. I used to know all those guys. Club Noreik and later on All Nations (Nations) were places I used to go to.

 

denzel " duke pekins studio one" was one of my dj's i was the only white face, also carlton bejamin, winston, and coxon downbeat, shaka, etc,
nando.

 

p.s. morpheous records, east croydon,
nando.

 

any way there is a demand for a tone control device mainly on slope filters like quad use to make, the pre-amp we used was a amcrom ic 150 a with a panorama control facility, luxman para metrics and galaxtron , i do not use eq's now only straight volume source, although i have just about 4500 vynil in mint condition, but i could do with an x-tone,
nando.

 

Most digital parametric have the option to apply shelf filters with variable slope. Still, I can understand most customers are scared by pro equipment with so many knobs and buttons.

I wouldn't want my system to be without a quality parametric EQ these days! It is so valuable!

 

Hi Tenson

I hope your not referring to a Behinger eq when you say quality
I use GMLs in all of our studios, not one piece of Behinger gear.
You should try a GML unit one day.

nando... you are brave. I wouldn't want to be the only white face in any of the clubs I used to go to. I was born in Trinidad and as you know most of the great roots stuff was coming out of the other Islands, we just had soca. I ended up working with Chris Blackwell and his crew later on which got me where I am today.

A parametric can work in a domestic system but is probably too 'fine' for most peoples ears. The Quad tilt needs serious modifying if you want to use something like that in a good audio system. But why would you want it. Most of the hifi shows I've been to in the UK, the music played is all that 'simple' Snora Jones and the same old Ricky Lee Jones, Jazz at the Pawn Shop crap. Do your customers listen to real music?

 

hi rob,me being spanish, my wife is guyaneese, lived in trinidad for 7 years," san fernando" we go to guyana annd trini, once a year, i too worked for ISLAND ,in the 70's, most of my customers listen to a very wide catalogue of music, and have good systems, all of a sudden they are asking for add on tone control unit's !!?? i came to england in 1968, went to holland park school, so brave i became,
regards,
nando.

 

nando ,

how about some of these hi fi units.

http://www.electronique-spectacle.com/djequip.htm

and if you contact shorty from thrive audio he makes very advanced tone shapers built by studio company summit audio.

http://www.wavemusic.com/community/showthread.php?t=9622

these are nice.

http://www.summitaudiogear.com/gear/eqf100.html


darryl.

 

What about an add-on balance control for people with odd (as in uneven) hearing and amps without such knobs.

 

I'd rather not use an analog design in my system. All my EQ is done before the signal leaves the digital domain.

Actually I do use the Behringer as my EQ and DAC, and mighty fine it is with modification of the output stage. I'm not surprised by your comments though, most studio engineers are just as snobby about kit as audiophiles. I've done quite a few blind tests with the modified DEQ, and even using the analog inputs and outputs, but with no EQ applied, it is entirely undetectable from the direct signal.

I don't think most audiophiles would want pro kit of any brand in their systems though. Too ugly, and too many buttons.

 

Agree Smon,
Nando.

 

Hi Tenson,

I don't know.... I use ATCs in all my systems and run one system with a modified rare 12 channel Trident desk with CD and a turntable, it's sounds great and is fun.

I've always found the domestic/ home studio gear from Mackie, Behinger, Rane, Presonus etc to be , well lacking. It's not snobbery but a fact of life, just like a Rega Planar 3 with a R200 tonearm will never match the Gyrodec for information retrieval.
I've had a chance to compare a DEQ2496 modified with the Burson output stage and also the same unit modified with the JE990C output stage compared to my in-house Summit 200B and GML 8200. The DEQ EQ sections are not anywhere as good as 'the real things'. The GML was so much more transparent and the 200B just better all around.

Snobbery does not exist at this level. The cheaper home studio gear is just cheap and cheerful, designed for a specific market.
Yes the Behringer, Mackie etc units fall well into this cheapie category but then they are designed to be cheap and cheerful.

 

Hi Rob,

Of course snobbery exists, at whatever level. Especially among those who have expensive kit.

If you are interested, you can hear some ADC conversion done by the transformer modded DEQ taken from a P9 here - http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?muhye02052k

I know it sounds antagonistic, but if your comparison was not done blind, it holds no sway with me.

 

Be fairly easy to test this.

Take one CD that we all generally agree is nicely mastered.
Rip the file directly to WAV.
Then play the same CD on a known respected CD player and record the output to a file after is has been through the external ADC process.

Present them blind and let people listen.
Perhaps mix n match 3 versions of each - all slightly cropped to assist with disguising the file origin.

The only stipulation I'd make is that the chosen CD player be widely regarded as being top class wrt linearity and absolutely ruler flat frequency response.

With broadband now so common and good quality ADCs out there at reasonable prices, there is no hiding place left for prejudice or simple bias.

 

Getting back to tone controls, I'm certain there is a market and Joseph's comments confirm this.

In fact we are kidding ourselves that they ever went out of fashion - they haven't of course. A handful of audiophiles wedded to hair-shirt boxes born on someone's kitchen table is no indicator of the wider audio market, and I don't just mean the crappy end of the market either.

I'm certainly interested in the project of a modern add-on 'tilt' type unit, perhaps with some independent bass shelf options with adjustable corner frequency. In fact I have the Quad schematics and it isn't particularly complex. The key would be striking the correct balance between a genuinely useful product and something that isn't overly complex.

 

I'd certainly pay good money for a nicely engineered tone control like you describe Rob. I really miss the "loudness" control on my HMV555.

 

Hi Tenson

There are times where a blind test is really not needed.
Rega 2/K9 vs LP12/ARO/XX2 MK2. As 'good' as the Behinger is, it's no Summit!

 

I don't know what you just said.

Either way, would you like to put your ideas to the test? Would you agree with RobHolt's suggested method that if you can not pick out a direct CD rip from one that has been played through both the modded Behringer DAC and
ADC, then it is valid to call it a 'quality' bit of kit?

 

Tenson

I think that is basically flawed. It all depends on the playback system. If your playback system is a laptop with a very basic soundcard and loudspeakers - like most have, then you'll be hard pressed to tell the difference.

If what you are saying that there are 'no differences' in the comparison then you have created the perfect piece of gear! Unfortunately, there are ALWAYS differences and if you think or believe for one second that there are NO differences then you are just kidding yourself and your customers.

 

hi robm,

you come across as a pretty knowlegable audio buff to me but i am just curious to what your regular/reference system is please.

cheers

darryl.