Traps vs Equalizer

I have actually had the Rives' folks design my room. And, I can categorically state, that there was never a mention of their PARC component whatsoever. They tackled the node problem with a combination of Mondo Traps by RealTraps and diffusion/absorption devices from RPG. In addition, another friend of mine also went through a similar experience with nary a mention of PARC. And, the kicker, is, that if the Rives' folks were going to operate in that manner it would of been with us since we are acquaintances with the owner of Rives and he personally did our plans. Treat the room and then see if you need more....my guess is that you won't........

It's true--even at Rives we believe no equalizer is the best equalizer. Unfortunately, for low frequency problems sometimes that isn't possible. You have to get the bass right. It really is fundamental. We always concern ourselves with bass issues first. We do everthing we reasonably can passively and hopefully do not need an EQ after that. However, some rooms have severe problems and do need an EQ. As Path7man said--treat the room first, and then see if it's really needed.

Hey, I would love to equalize my bass, especially coming from my subwoofer. However, I attach my subwoofer to the speaker terminals of my amp. How do I attached an equalizer for just the subwoofer? I could put the equalizer between the preamp and amp, but that would also affect my mains and I don't want to do that.

I would use an equalizer to fix bad recordings - their low frequency room correction is simply an added bonus.

All an equalizer is is a phase distorter. If you, as an auiophile, are comfortable with intentionally distorting the hell out of your signal before it even reaches your speakers, which will, as a result, not transduce the full range signal, then go for it. I am not comfortable with that myself and already feel there is enough distortion in my rig without adding another power using EMI/RFI laden IC needing black box.

I say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. if the problem is with your hifi, fix the hifi. If the problem is with the room, fix the room.