Tone controls- to use or not?

Eldartford, I have yet to hear a Behringer that I'd want to put in my system! All of them I have heard so far are easily surpassed by other manufacturers for not a lot of extra money. My impression so far is that they target the entry-level semi-pro market. Is that impression incorrect?

Atmasphere...Behringer makes many pieces of equipment. For some I agree with you, but in some cases it is sour grapes. But have you heard the DEQ2496? I hear no bad effect of having it in the loop, and it greatly improves the overall sound by compensating room effects. Furthermore, it's worth the price just for the spectrum analyser. I suggest that people buy it for that feature (to help with room treatment and speaker placement) and let them come to their own conclusion about leaving it in the loop for listening.

I recently got a deq 2496. Using it I hear after room eq better bass definition, a wider soundstage, more depth, more air. I am astoniched. When I take it out of the loop the sound collapses back into the speakers. I havent had tone controls for 25 years and here I am using and enjoying a very sophisticated one.

Ralph and MR E- I've purchased 8024's and 2496's for a number of venues over the years. As far as inexpensive auto-EQs for live sound: They do for a cheap, fast curve. Much more convenient than the old Ivey! I've got one in my listening room to check my response on occasion. Yes- There is a sonic price to pay with it in the system, so- It's not. It resides across the room, on a shelf and use one of a number of pink noise records/CDs that I own. Mr E is correct in that another 61 band RTA cannot be found for the money(makes it worthwhile). Too bad Behringer(or anyone else) doesn't offer an inexpensive mic that is accurate between 16 and 100Hz.

The Accuphase that I used was the DG-28 digital room correction unit. It wasn't cheap either! The analog unit, once set to the same settings, sounded better (nor was it cheap; for either unit you could have bought 3 or 4 Behringers). I know that price does not define everything, but OTOH Accuphase isn't junk either :)

Taking them out of the system easily allowed me to reveal the sonic fingerprint of either one.

So- does the Behringer sound *better* than the Accuphase, despite being built to a price as opposed to Accuphase, wherein price is really not a concern?? IOW, has the SOTA of room correction progressed that much in the last 6-7 years? Or am I to surmise that the equipment that I am used to using is that much more transparent, that things like this as a result have a more obvious sonic character?

If I had to guess it would be the latter, but I've not heard the Behringer stuff in the last 3-4 years...