Finally!!! Won an Ultra Curve on Evil Bay

[toddalin]

Today I made up some cables for the Behringer. (~15 foot low impedience SwitchCraft male to SwitchCraft female for the mic, 1/4" phono to RCA for the analog outputs, and SwitchCraft to RCA (unbalanced ) for the inputs. Luckily I still had these from ~30 years ago when I played.

DANG!!! It's a good thing that Behringer puts the user manual on-line! No way I would ever figure out all it does without the manual!

BTW, is it just mine, or does the pink noise signal get louder as the frequency gets higher? That's how my display protrays it with no mic connected.

[Zilch]

I'll check that, but you'll need to tell me what settings are used to accomplish that. Just looking at the pink noise output on the RTA?

BTW, it's not apparent or intuitive how to operate the pink noise generator for some:

On I/O menu P.1, highlight pink noise an push the large wheel.

Adjust the level using the bottom knob.

Pain in the ass dialing it up every time, but I suppose there's a way to use a memory location for a standard setting without EQ. :dont-know

[toddalin]

I'll check that, but you'll need to tell me what settings are used to accomplish that. Just looking at the pink noise output on the RTA?

BTW, it's not apparent or intuitive how to operate the pink noise generator for some:

On I/O menu P.1, highlight pink noise an push the large wheel.

Adjust the level using the bottom knob.

Pain in the ass dialing it up every time, but I suppose there's a way to use a memory location for a standard setting without EQ. :dont-know

Yes, just looking at the pink noise output on the RTA. All other settings appear to be off. 20KHz is about 10 dB higher than 20Hz with a steady slope between the two extremes. Menu only seems to adjust pink noise volume.

Also, when the mic cord is plugged in, but the mic not attached there is about a 5 dB rise around ~<60 hz that spans about 3 bars to either side (60 Hz hum?)

[Zilch]

I/O Page 1 Pink Noise on and turned up to -20 dB.

RTA Page 1 button A to L+R Out. It's reading the outputs, summed.

RTA Page 2 button A to rate = AVRG.

It's perfectly flat. Any EQ you have on alters that accordingly.

Make sure all are off, GEQ both L & R reset to flat, etc.

[Thom]

I'm glad someone can figure the damn thing out. I use the earlier model to generate noise and read while using the 2496 to equalize I'm not convinced that I ever got it to equalize in auto. Also, I didn't figure out how to alter below 100hz when using auto eq. I stopped taking pain meds just to try to understand the two units and they still made me feel like an idiot. I'm usually quite good with such things. I work as an instrument tech and such. Do the bars ever quit dancing enough for you to feel confident about your adjustments? Some devices come with a "how to use this manual" page in the manual.

[toddalin]

I/O Page 1 Pink Noise on and turned up to -20 dB.

RTA Page 1 button A to L+R Out. It's reading the outputs, summed.

RTA Page 2 button A to rate = AVRG.

It's perfectly flat. Any EQ you have on alters that accordingly.

Make sure all are off, GEQ both L & R reset to flat, etc.

Been there done that but didn't help!

FINALLY, I stumbled onto the "NOISE SHAPER" in the I/O Menu. Absolutely no indication of what it does or how to use it except a mention on page 13 of the manual that notes "The NOISE SHAPER function to be activated with the B key reduces the dither-induced noise by moving it to a frequency range where it is less audible." No other mention of it in the manual.

Turning it off brought everything up level.

[toddalin]

I'm glad someone can figure the damn thing out. I use the earlier model to generate noise and read while using the 2496 to equalize I'm not convinced that I ever got it to equalize in auto. Also, I didn't figure out how to alter below 100hz when using auto eq. I stopped taking pain meds just to try to understand the two units and they still made me feel like an idiot. I'm usually quite good with such things. I work as an instrument tech and such. Do the bars ever quit dancing enough for you to feel confident about your adjustments? Some devices come with a "how to use this manual" page in the manual.

Thom. I noticed the same thing and there were no tick marks on the display below 100 Hz to even change! However, when I deactivated the NOISE SHAPER these tick marks appeared. (I think that must be what did it.)

Has to be one of the worst user manuals I've ever seen.

[JBL 4645]

I/O Page 1 Pink Noise on and turned up to -20 dB.

RTA Page 1 button A to L+R Out. It's reading the outputs, summed.

RTA Page 2 button A to rate = AVRG.

It's perfectly flat. Any EQ you have on alters that accordingly.

Make sure all are off, GEQ both L & R reset to flat, etc.

Yes of course (summed) if there was a DCX2496 on the input revere the phase of polarity and the signal will drop.

I’m looking forwards to get a few of these DEQ2496 sometime next year to tame the LCR and as for the other channel, I don’t know I’ll think of something, I’ll then save up and get a third or fourth at the same time to do sidewall surrounds centre back and height surrounds.

Then things will be getting close to the way I want it, I can throw out the other EQ units or use them for something other maybe use one between the, analogue Lt Rt on one of the DVD players. The DEQ2496 will be for room EQ correcting only.

[Zilch]

Do the bars ever quit dancing enough for you to feel confident about your adjustments?

Yes. You set the Rate to "AVRG." Two clicks of "A" and you're back to a readable live display. Two clicks more, and you're on average again, where I take all of my pics for posting here.

That's the drill at ZilchLab, anyway....

[toddalin]

Well..., I think I might be getting the hang of this thing..., but:

Using the phono jack outputs, there is a terrible ground loop without using a cheater plug. Is this normal?

I finally got the RTA to work with the ECM8000 mic..., but:

Even when the amp volume is turned all the way down (no sound from the speakers), the display still dances about (fairly evenly across the band now except for my 60 hz bump, probably due to the unshielded mic cable).

I know the mic is working because the display does go up with a signal from the mic. (While the Max adjustment brings the level down, it's still there.)

Again, is this normal? Is it reading its own background noise?

Again, got to be the worst user manual I've seen! For example, it notes to use a sensitivity of -37 dBV/Pa for the ECM8000 mic..., but doesn't note to turn on the phantom power supply.

[UreiCollector]

Adjustments by hand would be my recomendation, however if you want to use auto EQ, the box will not do this below 100hz.

Page 15 of the manual states "It makes sense to exclude the low-frequency range (up to approx. 100 Hz) from AUTO EQing, because it is this range that may produce inaccuracies during the calculation of the frequency response, which might impair the results achieved with the AUTO EQ."

My German to English translator has taken the above statement *crunch crunch* giving us "we don't want to overdrive your subwoofer and break it on you, so do it yourself".

Also, severe dips in response below 100hz at the mic location (caused by room modes) could result in the auto EQ choosing unacceptable gains.

You know what may happen with 15db of boost at 20hz....especially if you are well below the cutoff freq of your sub system......oh boy, some $ could be had in the recone business!

Happy listening!

[UreiCollector]

Pain in the ass dialing it up every time, but I suppose there's a way to use a memory location for a standard setting without EQ. :dont-know

I think they did this so that amplifiers/speakers are not overdriven when turning on the pink noise. Of course a pain for us, but for the guy on the road, it could save on broken equip should something be wired wrong....easy to do when a stage hand is plugging your stuff.

[UreiCollector]

I finally got the RTA to work with the ECM8000 mic..., but:

Even when the amp volume is turned all the way down (no sound from the speakers), the display still dances about (fairly evenly across the band now except for my 60 hz bump, probably due to the unshielded mic cable).

I know the mic is working because the display does go up with a signal from the mic. (While the Max adjustment brings the level down, it's still there.)

Again, is this normal? Is it reading its own background noise?

There will be a noise floor to any analyzer, nature of the beast. What you want to do is to make sure the signal that you want to measure is well above that noise floor to prevent it from "becoming part of" your measurement.

[Zilch]

A proper mic cable is like $15 at Guitar center.

Get the proper cables and/or adapters.

With the sensitivity turned way up, I can see someone flushing the toilet two blocks away on the display.

Ambient noise....

[Skywave-Rider]

I know this is an older post, but I'd thought I'd chime in since I recently got this unit. Yes you can select frequencies below 80Hz when "autoEQing." When selecting your GEQ target, it defaults, when reset, to excluding those freqs. But you can select them manually by rolling the upper knob to the freq band and clicking the large data wheel to select it. After that,. hit the "page" button to continue with the process. As was stated, be careful, you'll get flat bass in the listening (measurement mic) location, but due to room effects, you might see a lot of boost on some bands. If your woofers/amp can handle it, cool. If you walk out of the sweet spot you might hear tons of low end. Yes I am describing my situation. Unfortunately my apt. is not built like a studio control room.

I found this thread to be very helpful. Thanks guys!