BehringerDEQ2496 Ultra Curve Processor

Purchased for use in small demo studio.A few years ago Behringer used to be AKA for cheap and nasty but lots of "nice" flashing lights. Times have changed. Behringer's keen pricing has obviously let them achieve some volume and economies of scale despite the tough economy, which they've clearly ploughed back into R&D.This unit is extremely easy to understand and configure. Feature packed, yet easy to navigate menus. I place the unit between desk and monitors using the digital s/p DIF. It is low noise and input/output levels are fully controlable and accurate. The RTA is great for analysing / autocorrecting the listening space and for tweaking different monitor sets, although budget about another 40GBP for the linear measurement mic (sold separately). (The mic is also amazingly linear considering it is around a tenth the price of competing products.)Only minor complaint would be no soft(i.e. muted) shutdown/ startup, which leads to pops and cracks on power-up/down, so a little care is needed to protect amps/ speakers.You can't complain at this price level. A really useful piece of equipment in a semi-pro set-up. Well done B!

I use this all the time to fine tune my home Hi Fi when listening through headphones. You can do almost anything to alter the sound to your personal liking and it can memorise your different settings too.I have two that have lasted several years without problem. It takes some time to learn all the features using the well written user manual. I would not buy one unless you can get the manual as it's very sophisticated.

Using this for room EQ - great product and auto EQ effectively removing unwanted room resonances (not using any of the other features at the moment)4* as had to send first unit back as faulty but getting 5* performance at the moment.

Excellent sound control at signal level. Easy to use and with memory for different spectra

I wanted this as a mastering tool for home recording projects, but also as an EQ for my system.I use a pro amp driven by the preamp out (before the tone stack) of an old integrated.Its a great amp, but has an overly strident midrange.So, kill two birds with one stone - set up so that I can ensure recordings sound good after mixing (I have a CD recorder) in my usual listening space whose characteristics I am used to, and give me a really good EQ to tweak the sound of my old pro amp.There is quite a steep learning curve with this unit.I confess to not reading the instructions properly initially, to the detriment of my speakers.Be careful that levels are properly set if you intend to use the auto EQ feature.Pink noise kills tweeters stone dead.Others have gone into more detail , but you have a choice of parametic or graphic EQThere is a dynamic EQ so you can change the parameters with volume (say more bass at low volumes, lessening as the volume rises)The stereo expander is a nice little touch as are the compression tools.If you use a trs to RCA lead you can connect the aux out to a spare input on the hi fi and listen to what the optical digital out sounds like - usefull if you are mastering, as you can A-B between your project and a "target" recording whose sound you are aiming to emulate.

I have been using one of these in various PA setups for quite a while now. For the price it is an incredibly powerful piece of DSP processing equipment. The user interface is excellent, making it really easy to change configuration on the fly. This is really handy for live sound.It isn't so great for studio work unless you are using the digital IO. The analogue inputs and outputs are a bit noisy for recording, but ok for live work in medium size venues.Now for the bad stuff... I have owned 3 of these units over the years and two out of three broke! There is a ribbon cable connecting the IO PCB and the processing PCB together inside this unit and it has a huge flat ferrite on it. If the unit is used in a portable rig, this ferrite bounces around and causes the ribbon table to fail.So its great for an installed rig which will never move, you get a huge number of features for your money! However if you are building a portable rig, steer clear of this unit!

I bought the Ultra Curve to EQ my main PA using the 32 band graphic and the frequency analyzer. I don't use the other parts (feed back killer, parametric )I have always built my own PA cabs and tried to balance the sound by ear. I have had to down size my system and I wasn't happy with the sound I only had a15 band graphic so I looked at other 32 band graphics and relised that to get a good sound by ear would be difficult.Using the ECM8000 measurement mic and the frequency analyzer was easy and gave me the best sound I have had in the past 20 years. It's also good at EQing a room before a gig The pink noise that you have to put out last less than a minute.I also use it to EQ the room and sound in my home studio just save the EQ to a memory.

I needed to eq my 2.1 studio monitor system (I can hear the outrage from the purists already!). There's only so much you can do to physically nullify room modes, so after trying a stereo 31 band graphic and returning it due to the underwhelming results, I chose to try the DEQ2496 because it has a spectrum analyser that measures the listening position and auto-adjusts a graphic eq to reduce peaks and troughs (requires a measurement mic). I then did a little extra tweaking by adding a parametric eq and then saving this to one of many memory locations. The end result is a monitoring system that matches my Sony MDR-7506 headphones almost exactly. Job done.This unit can do much more than I am using them for. I can heartily recommend this unit for studio and live use and believe it represents outstanding value for money.