Behringer DEQ2496 - wow

This kind of device is a phenomenally handy "tool" and can also be used to compensate for very poor recordings. The fact that you can save various EQ curves and select them at the flip of a switch is very handy indeed. Got a disc that sounds "digital" i.e. lean and glaring? No problem. Program in the right "correction curve" and you've got a whole new presentation of that specific material. Next disc sounds thick on the bottom and closed in up top? No problem there either. Modern technology hard at work.

Smeyers: Sometimes it's not a matter of having "great" quality parts so much as how those parts are implimented i.e. circuit design. One can use the finest parts in a poor circuit and / or a circuit that is less than optimally laid out ( impedance problems ) and come out worse than a circuit using lower grade parts with better execution. If you check in another thread, i make mention of folks modifying the Behringer's for better sonics. Most of these are basic mods, but like anything else, one can get as "crazy" as they'd like to in terms of how far they want to take these modifications. Sean
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The Behringer is a cheap mic, lacks quality control and isn't "flat" according to the published spec's. As such, any / all of the readings that the unit processes is based on the irregular output of the mic that you're using as a reference source. You want better results, get a better mic. Otherwise, what you are trying to do with an uncalibrated, mass produced mic would be equivalent to trying to build a house using a ruler that you "think" has 12 inches to a foot, but really doesn't. Whether or not it is "close enough" will depend on how far off the calibration really is.

Other than that, these types of devices are NOT "cure-all's". They are strictly a band-aid and that's why i said that they are very handy tools. Nothing more, nothing less. One needs to get the system and room dialed in as best possible BEFORE using this type of "error correction". Using this type of approach, the results are FAR superior to just relying on the "band-aid" approach to try and heal the gaping wounds that most systems / rooms suffer from. What has to be done to the room will depend on the room dimensions, speaker placement, speaker dispersion pattern, seated listening position, etc...

Nothing is free and nothing is perfect. Anybody that tells you that a product is perfect or can solve all your problems obviously has something to sell. Sean
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Forgot to touch base on this, but the reason that they use pink noise is that it offers simultaneous full spectrum output for time-domain measurements. You can't do that nearly as quickly or effectively when using a frequency sweep. Pink noise is also a far more complex signal, which can cause the speaker & room to respond slightly differently than if it was being excited with a sweeping narrow band signal. Sean
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Smeyers: The Behringer acted as if the system was lacking bass and treble due to the SM-57's lack of extension and corrected accordingly i.e. increased the lows and highs. As such, i would "assume" that the Behringer is taking things in stride in a relatively linear fashion.

This is why i said that the "flatter" the mic is, the more accurate the correction factor will be and vice-versa. That's because the Behringer will correct for the non-linear frequency response that the mic itself introduces into the equation, not what the system / room interface is actually doing.

Compare the results of the SM-81 to that of the SM-57. Now look at the response curve of the ECM8000. You'll have to go to the Behringer website and then click on "spec sheet, PDF 145 kb" to see it though as i can't do a direct link.

As a side note, the response curve Behringer has posted seems to be slightly different from the curve i saw about two years ago or so. As such, they might have changed the mic, changed the spec sheet or both. If the Behrigner ECM8000 actually tests out as this chart shows, and the mics are consistent from mic to mic, it is a tremendous bargain. This is true even if the cost of the mic went up 25% in the last year or so.

One more thing. The ECM8000 is an omni mic. In other words, it picks up relatively evenly in all directions around it. While this may be beneficial in some instances, i don't think that it is here. The Shure SM-81 that i mentioned above is not an omni, but uses a cardiod pattern. That means that it is more sensitive to sounds coming from directly in front of it and off to the sides, but response falls off as you get further behind it. This is somewhat how our hearing works too as our ears act as horns facing slightly forward. Obviously, some folks have larger / smaller ears and some are more stream-lined clinging to the sides of their heads whereas others are more "focused", sticking out and facing more towards their front. This will affect what we hear as individuals and is part of why a machine can only correct for each of our own hearing attributes to a percentage.

Like i said, these devices are great tools, but you've got to learn how to use them. They aren't perfect and you have to be able to interpret the data that they provide and tweak it accordingly to the given installation. Sean
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Danner: I hear ya and understand where you're coming from. The problem is that they can skew the response of the device to compensate for the mic's response, but who's to say that all the cheap mass produced mic's will have the same non-linearities / frequency response abberations to them? As such, if you can find a mic that looks similar to the factory supplied mic in terms of response, but would be more consistent from unit to unit, you'll probably get results that are even more accurate.

Other than that, i've tried contacting Behringer to verify if the circuitry was built for "max linearity" of it has a non-linearity built into it to compensate for the mic that they sell. No response from them on several different attempts.

For the record, i've used a Shure SM-81 with great results. Then again, this mic cost more than any of the Behringer components themselves. In this case though, you get what you pay for. Sean
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