behringer vs rives

The Rives Parc if I recall correctly has 3 parametric bands that can cut bass peaks (but not boost the dips).

Exactly....it is idiot proof. It will not ruin your sound like you can very easily do with a full fledged EQ. For example....you should NEVER boost room nulls with your EQ...this is bad....but you need to be quite knowledgeable about how audio equipment works to not make this fundamental mistake. This is where Rives come in....a product that will do as much for the room modes as you can practically do WITHOUT the risk of messing it up through ignorance.

Rives is Analog whilst Behringer does things in the digital domain. The Behringer is a full paramteric equalizer it will overwhelm most people when trying to set it up and understand the width of filters according to Q etc. Behringer is better suited to geeks who spend hours reading and studying a manual....

Plato,

Agreed. However I was just trying to point out that a full fledged paremteric EQ is really for a power user and not for audiophiles that tend to spurn technology in favor of purity of signal path. After all, many audiophlies eschew simple tone controls as getting in the way of the signal. they also eschew an A to D and D to A conversion of their TT signal...which is required by Behringer.

Rives is an audiophile quality product....Behringer is more of a pro product built cheaply. I think Behringer is great value but its greater complexity can be a negative to some. Rives Parc is higher quality and more suited to audiophiles with simple two channel TT rigs and no wish to read complex manuals and wish to maintain "purity of signal"...thats all.