Re: GEQ Shootout: The Sheridan's Tale

Posted by Bink on December 20, 2003 at 22:43:15:

In Reply to: GEQ Shootout: Luke's Take posted by Luke Sheridan on December 20, 2003 at 20:54:17:

Luke, nice review! I agree with your assessments for the most part. Too bad we didn't have time see the XTA's noise floor get measured; that might have been the lowest one. All I know about the XTA noise specs is from seeing its HPF in Smaart. The low freqs retain coherency farther down than most EQs meaning you are still getting signal above noise way down there.

Yes, the new Rane and the Audient were pleasant surprises. We'll see more of them when the results are tallied. The Audient's precision bench specs are astounding.

In defense of the DN360 there is an extremely smooth post-square wave response rivalled only by the XTA. In the Torture Pulse test you'll see that most EQs have a bit of 'bounce' in the silence directly after a signal spike. The XTA and the KT were super clean in this regard.

I've used the Sabine GRQ a lot and I'm sorry to say I've grown less fond of the compression algorithm. Plus there's the +30 ceiling which is too high for your +21 inserts. Easy solution is to lead it with your favorite hot compressor, pump the comp output by 10dB and pad the GRQ output by 10dB. The combination of 12 notches and full GEQ is powerful. Not the simplest device to use, though, and I would love to go through the GUI navigation to interconnect the menus better. And the faders and pots don't respond predictably to your touch. You have to watch those little red numbers in the window.

The Protea's a good choice for mons because the sound is good and you can park the remote somewhere convenient and control all sixteen mixes. Its phase traces in Smaart are among the smoothest I've seen. Yes, it would be good to have a few PEQ filters thrown in for good measure, even if they robbed some floating GEQ from the DSP bank. Not an easy re-engineering task if Ashly has assigned DSP power in a 'hardwired' fashion to each GEQ filter. I've always like the sound of my Protea parametric so I can understand you liking your graphic. One more Protea wish list item is digital I/O so that you can patch the GEQ in front of your Protea crossover, saving on latency and the additional A/D/A conversion noise.

I'm sure sorry about your Protea remote getting lost, Luke. I went back to the venue the next day and looked around but they said nobody turned it in. Let's all keep an eye out for it! Posting the serial number would help folks track it.

-Bink

Follow Ups:

• brand bias Luke Sheridan 02:20:28 12/21/03 (1)
  • Re: brand bias John Chiara 03:31:47 12/22/03 (0)

Post a Followup

Name    : 
E-Mail  : 
Subject : 

Comments:
: Luke, nice review! I agree with your assessments for the most part. Too bad we didn't have time see the XTA's noise floor get measured; that might have been the lowest one. All I know about the XTA noise specs is from seeing its HPF in Smaart. The low freqs retain coherency farther down than most EQs meaning you are still getting signal above noise way down there.

: Yes, the new Rane and the Audient were pleasant surprises. We'll see more of them when the results are tallied. The Audient's precision bench specs are astounding.

: In defense of the DN360 there is an extremely smooth post-square wave response rivalled only by the XTA. In the Torture Pulse test you'll see that most EQs have a bit of 'bounce' in the silence directly after a signal spike. The XTA and the KT were super clean in this regard.

: I've used the Sabine GRQ a lot and I'm sorry to say I've grown less fond of the compression algorithm. Plus there's the +30 ceiling which is too high for your +21 inserts. Easy solution is to lead it with your favorite hot compressor, pump the comp output by 10dB and pad the GRQ output by 10dB. The combination of 12 notches and full GEQ is powerful. Not the simplest device to use, though, and I would love to go through the GUI navigation to interconnect the menus better. And the faders and pots don't respond predictably to your touch. You have to watch those little red numbers in the window.

: The Protea's a good choice for mons because the sound is good and you can park the remote somewhere convenient and control all sixteen mixes. Its phase traces in Smaart are among the smoothest I've seen. Yes, it would be good to have a few PEQ filters thrown in for good measure, even if they robbed some floating GEQ from the DSP bank. Not an easy re-engineering task if Ashly has assigned DSP power in a 'hardwired' fashion to each GEQ filter. I've always like the sound of my Protea parametric so I can understand you liking your graphic. One more Protea wish list item is digital I/O so that you can patch the GEQ in front of your Protea crossover, saving on latency and the additional A/D/A conversion noise.

: I'm sure sorry about your Protea remote getting lost, Luke. I went back to the venue the next day and looked around but they said nobody turned it in. Let's all keep an eye out for it! Posting the serial number would help folks track it.

: -Bink



Optional Link URL:  
Link Title:         
Optional Image URL: