Will it improve my listening experience?

[subro99]

Dear Friends and Gurus,

Recently i was surfing casually through the OLX website and bumped into an ad selling the following item :

Behringer: ULTRACURVE PRO DEQ2496

I am a casual listener trying to get the best stereo sound system for my home listening in a "value for money" way. I was told this will help improve/rectify the deficiencies of my existing system which is nothing but a simple decent amplifier and a pair of speakers. Speakers are of course a DIY attempt and i am not very happy with it.

The final negotiated price is INR 8000/- The seller is first purchaser and had acquired it in September 2012, which means two months warranty left.

Guys, should i take the plunge?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Santy]

While you wait for experts to chip in, my suggestion is that it should not be a priority for you now. Probably you need to upgrade your speakers and/ or amplifier first. Equalization / DSP / Room correction can help in improvement only when your system is good enough to make use of it. You cannot put tyres meant for Ferrari on an Alto and expect great improvement in performance. Moreover, I believe you will be spending a lot, lot, lot of time only in figuring out how to make best use of it.

 

[magma]

what is the rest of your gear . ?

 

[subro99]

My gear is very simple :

Laptop ---> Norge Power 1200 -----> Sonodyne Sonus 2605.

Sometimes i replace the laptop with a DVD Player (Sharp - old model) for CD Listening and sometimes a simple stereo FM receiver.

Right now thinking of a tube preamplifier between the laptop and the Norge.

Thanks for asking.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Whatever the system, this box will adjust the sound to fit your room and, if need be, your ears. All I can say is I'd like one, and this seems like a good price. There should be a mic for the room correction: is it included?

I have the feeling though, that this is no magic plug in. Whilst some of the room-correction facilities are going to be "automatic," I think you are going to have to do quite a bit of work, and learn quite a lot, to get results out of it. A bit of a geek's toy, perhaps, and, if you feel like being a bit of a geek, this would be a fantastic opportunity

 

[kapvin]

My gear is very simple :

Laptop ---> Norge Power 1200 -----> Sonodyne Sonus 2605.

Sometimes i replace the laptop with a DVD Player (Sharp - old model) for CD Listening and sometimes a simple stereo FM receiver.

Right now thinking of a tube preamplifier between the laptop and the Norge.

Thanks for asking.

I have this unit as well. This is a good price. If you don't want it, maybe you can pass this lead to me. I could possibly find a use for a second unit.

This is more than just. An eq. There is digital in; a sample rate converter, analogue in, adc, 31 band geq, peq, expander, and compressor and dac

You can use is it as a dac (it uses akm4393 afaik), a sample rate converter and a digital room correction system.

Currently ( and this is not the final use) I am using it to take digital in from source(toslink), correct for some room modes with notches) and digitally output using Aes cables to my standalone dac, which feeds the power amp.

 

[kapvin]

Frankly, at 8k for your system it is a no brainer. If your DVD players/laptop can output optical digital, you have a great budget dac.

Clearly the guy selling it may not have bandwidth to understand it's utility. Or maybe he replaced it with really high end gear. But in my opinion, this is a pretty good deal, if you are willing to get your hands dirty.

And finally, there are a lot of mods to take the quality from pro audio level to esoteric. And beyond. Here is one simple site..

http://www.behringermods.com/deq2496.html

There are many more .

Oh, btw, a USB mic and freeware and you can have a really good system.

Here Are some USB mics.

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=390-808

http://www.minidsp.com/products/acoustic-measurement/umik-1

Or you if you get the behringer ECM-8000 - the matching mic;you can get a USB converter for 4k on bajaao.

 

[kapvin]

Whatever the system, this box will adjust the sound to fit your room and, if need be, your ears. All I can say is I'd like one, and this seems like a good price. There should be a mic for the room correction: is it included?

I have the feeling though, that this is no magic plug in. Whilst some of the room-correction facilities are going to be "automatic," I think you are going to have to do quite a bit of work, and learn quite a lot, to get results out of it. A bit of a geek's toy, perhaps, and, if you feel like being a bit of a geek, this would be a fantastic opportunity

Thad, the built in room correction is a bit rudimentary. It uses the geq rather than the parametric eq.

You need external computer based software.

 

[Santy]

I thought such systems would have A/D with Midi inputs for mixing but didn't realize it has a D/A as well. In which case the asking price is justified even just the DAC alone it has. New pieces sold at 26600.

Buy Online | Lowest Price | Free Shipping| Behringer DEQ2496 Ultracurve PRO - Buy online at the guaranteed lowest price in India - BAJAAO - Buy online and Review Musical Instruments, Pro Audio, Studio, P.A. Audio Equipment in India

Norge power amp is more than a simple decent amplifier! You just need to pair it with a good pre and speakers.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Thad, the built in room correction is a bit rudimentary. It uses the geq rather than the parametric eq.

You need external computer based software.

I guess it is a starting point, which is why I thought that this would need much more work than just plugging in. Member thevortex has one, and I have seen it working, but not the calibration process itself. He is very happy with it.

The best comment so far is that, so long as all is well with the unit, at that price it is absolutely a "no brainer." Quick! Buy it before one of us does! :lol: It's an investment

(didn't I see one for sale recently at more than 2.5 times the price?)

 

[subro99]

Hey Guys !!

It came home !!!

(After going through all your posts i headed towards the seller, paid him and ran back as fast as i could....before he ever thought of changing his mind by any chance !!)

While i brought it back and looked at it....it seems to be very angry .... staring at me as if questioning me "Don't you know, u fool, i don't belong here..i belong in a studio..!!??

Reason i am writing is - it is belittling my rest of simplistic system because it is snobbishly staring at them saying "Look you RCA morons... i am an XLR guy, u can't even talk to me !!"

So i am back into internet searching ways and means to find how to do RCA-> XLR and back. Net it seems, is equally confusing....it is throwing all kinds of solutions...even talking of transformers calling them "baluns" ( pronounced similar to baboons ??)...

Thand, you were right.....look i have become a geek..!!

Thanks everybody, what a nice deal. Only if now i can deal with this deal !!

 

[kapvin]

Hey Guys !!

It came home !!!

(After going through all your posts i headed towards the seller, paid him and ran back as fast as i could....before he ever thought of changing his mind by any chance !!)

While i brought it back and looked at it....it seems to be very angry .... staring at me as if questioning me "Don't you know, u fool, i don't belong here..i belong in a studio..!!??

Reason i am writing is - it is belittling my rest of simplistic system because it is snobbishly staring at them saying "Look you RCA morons... i am an XLR guy, u can't even talk to me !!"

So i am back into internet searching ways and means to find how to do RCA-> XLR and back. Net it seems, is equally confusing....it is throwing all kinds of solutions...even talking of transformers calling them "baluns" ( pronounced similar to baboons ??)...

Thand, you were right.....look i have become a geek..!!

Thanks everybody, what a nice deal. Only if now i can deal with this deal !!

relax.

xlr to rca is not sub a problem. you should be able to get them locally. otherwise try monoprice.

also the unit has an aux out which is trs. (which as a connector is the same as 1/4" stereo phono jack). this will accept TS (which is 1/4" mono phono jack) which has the added benefit to turning your balanced (pro) signal to unbalanced (consumer grade) you get enough TS to RCA jacks. you can do the second as short term till you get the XLR-RCA cables

that takes care of your output.

for input -- i would suggest, if you music is digital - do not use the analogue inputs (you will be doing 2 additional pointless D-A and A-D conversions). use the digital (optical). I think the input also accepts spdif on the AES cable but I guess you will need an XLR-RCA to try that out.

Edit:
http://www.decdun.me.uk/deq2496.html

in case you want to use the built in room correction system

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Great stuff: have fun!

Sound like all those ins and outs are a bit daunting. Looks like kapvin has the answers

 

[Santy]

Thanks everybody, what a nice deal. Only if now i can deal with this deal !!

To close the deal, why do you talk about anything else other than the rate, date, place and time?
Just pay and pick it up, rest of the doubts can be clarified here later.

This is XLR female to RCA connector which you might need. XLR is balanced and RCA is for unbalanced audio. Your XLR end will be connected to OUT of the processor and RCA will go into the input of Norge amp. I have made several cables myself.

 

[Santy]

@subro
So have you connected your Behringer processor in your chain?
What are your initial impressions?