EQ's

[lpd]

Ok so I'm off onto another chapter on the stereo setup. I have been looking at some EQ's and am confused. A local shop has told me that he has he has Ureie 539 and a pair of Yamaha's 31 graphs, but he wants $800.00 Canadian for them. I can purchase a pair of White 4400's for significantly less. Any thoughts on EQ's for a three way setup.

[toddalin]

I have both a stereo and monaural Yamaha 31-band eq that I used for L/C/R. I no longer use them because my my Yamaha RX-Z9 has them built in (with self eqing).

I'd let you have than for a lot less than that (say $350 US for the pair) if Canadian shipping/customs isn't a big hassle.

[scott fitlin]

You can get Urei 539,s on eBay for far less than $800/pr! You are aware that the urei 539,s are cut only, with 20db of make up gain? This means you cannot boost any of the frequencies, only cut them, and then use the make up gain to restore the level from EQing losses.

The Urei 539,s were good, so are the White 4200A,s, which are the same type of EQ, but they are sort of hard to set without an RTA and a calibrated mic and pink noise.

The White 4400,s are cut/boost, and are very good.

If you are going to get the Urei EQ,s you want the ones with the black metal fader shafts, this was the later version. The earlier version with the white plastic faders were prone to really wearing out, and getting stuck. And many found their way to the junk pile because of this reason. As well as there are no parts available for them anymore.

If you do land a mint pair of White or Urei EQ,s, they do sound good, and if you know how to use them can be very beneficial to getting the best from your system.

[jkc]

Never been a fan of EQ’s
My first thought is what are you trying to EQ? if it’s a PA then its OK
If it’s a HI FI buy/build some speakers with a flat frequency response.

But then maybe it’s a bad room that we are trying to sort out.
So if it’s the room you would be better looking at a Parametric EQ.
Typically rooms nodes have very narrow bandwidth and the filter on multi band EQ’s are just too wide and you end up with a “notch” that is wide with a “peak” in the middle instead.

I am currently fiddling with a Varicurve by BSS which uses digital control of parametric EQ.
The filter bandwidth works down to 0.1 octave and is quite useful for removing room nodes.
But you need test gear that has enough resolution to measure what can be very narrow nodes otherwise you don’t have a clue what is happening.
Anyway I was trying to tame a rather problematic room with some good results.
Good for taming subwoofers to.
The BSS has auto EQ and all that stuff but when you start measuring this stuff you find that

Moving the mic has a major impact
Moving the subs mall distances can dramatically affect which room nodes are excited.
So its not as simple as it seems


Solution = build a better room.

Just some thoughts on the subject

[Mr. Widget]

Never been a fan of EQ’s...

I agree with your entire post... I hope to someday build that better room... in the meantime I do employ a small amount of EQ and it is certainly for the better. I do have very sophisticated measurement equipment and I certainly use it, but ultimately we hear differently than how a lab mic hears and all of my final adjustments are made entirely by ear... that said without the test gear I have found that the use of EQs to be mostly frustrating and ultimately detrimental to the listening experience.


Widget

[lpd]

I agree with all of you. I have a disasterous room with nodes all over the place. It took almost a month to place my subs in a place where they excite minimal nodes. Having said that there are still peaks ect. and I think eq's are the most cost friendly solution. I have access to a rta and calibrated mic and tech to setup and analyze. I just want a low cost solution.

Thanks for the input.

[Zilch]

See Toole's latest paper in the June, 2006 AES Journal....