Behringer DEQ2496: Ease of Use

I owned one. I would suggest buying a used DEQ2496 and trying it yourself. One person's difficult is another person's easy, and vice versa.

They retain their value very well...especially if purchased used. Be sure to get one with the ECM microphone and mic cable, otherwise you won't be able to utililize the room correction module.

The Behringer DEQ2496 is a great little box for the money. A friend of mind borrowed me his for 6 weeks and I will surely get one for myself.

It is not too difficult to use, but then I have a Physics Ph.D. :). It has many options and trying all out will take its time. What I enjoy most is the capability to do real time room measurement. This really helps in setting up speakers and integrating a sub. Also, it works well as a decent DAC.

One comment though: An equalizer is no substitute for room treatments. Room treatment will treat standing waves and reflections for listening anywhere in the room. An equalizer cannot compensate for listening positions or speakers placed a standing wave node. Also, ideally the equalizer will only correct the response for one particular seating position.

Finally, I can detect some negative effects of even mild equalization circuit in my system.

Well worth it for measurements and as analyzer for room treatment. The DAC is a nice feature too.

Rene

Finally, I can detect some negative effects of even mild equalization circuit in my system.

I did, too.

Well worth it for measurements and as analyzer for room treatment.

Yes, indeed.

The DAC is a nice feature too.

I was not impressed with the sound of the DAC.

I found it to unacceptably degrade the sound in my system and what it did do to flatten response was not that beneficial in my room. Taking it out, the sound was more natural, smoother and more transparent. I concluded that flat response was beneficial but not that important and adding another dithering stage was likely the problem.

When using the DEQ, it is useful to be aware of one particular point. In digital, it is accepted that dithering can be beneficial but that more than one stage of dithering inevitably degrades the sound. So if you insert the DEQ2496 you add a dithering stage. Redithering in the DAC that follows it will therefore mean it has been done twice. Whether you can avoid that depends a bit on how your DAC works and on matching the bit length of the output of the DEQ and the bit length your DAC uses immediately before conversion to analogue.

FYI, RAM mods these unit. You can find out more about it on their web site.