The (Dis-)Equalizer – Premium vinyl record cleaners

The (Dis-)Equalizer

Sometime within the mid to late Nineties, an article from the English DIY scene piqued my curiosity.

The textual content was written by Thorsten Loesch, who till 2019 was the mastermind behind one of the crucial artistic corporations in your entire hi-fi circus and was as soon as recognized within the scene as an extremely lively DIY hi-fi nerd. The article was a couple of digital equalizer that was as cheap for the time because it was feature-rich. Just like a toddler that has seen a Swiss military knife for the primary time, I used to be instantly hooked and ordered the system. And similar to the child with the pocket knife, I bought as much as all kinds of nonsense with the equalizer. Unfortunately, the standard of the music playback not often benefited from any of this. At some level I misplaced curiosity within the jack-of-all-trades and offered the system, solely to search out out shortly afterwards that its successor had seen the sunshine of day. This was even cheaper and provided much more prospects to bend the sound. Wonderful, lastly some playtime once more! Other measures had served me higher in enhancing my music playback system, however this factor simply triggered a “want-to-have” reflex and I completely needed to have it. Many of my fellow victims will most likely have had the same expertise. This time, nevertheless, the equalizer remained completely in my assortment and just lately, it even bought reactivated once more.

For a while now, I’ve been on the lookout for a means to boost outdated music recordings in purely digital kind with out changing them to analog. A little bit raise on the bass or treble whereas reducing the mids a tad or vice versa could make a world of a distinction. In earlier occasions, each amplifier had just a few tone controls for this very objective. The pinnacle of the evolution of such sound enhancers was then as now the Cello Audio vary, sadly unattainable for me and likewise not a digital system. For absolutely digital chains like mine, such sound enhancers additionally exist, however their capabilities match my necessities about in addition to the capabilities of a supercar for driving to the bakery on the following road nook. Unfortunately, digital and a give attention to the necessities appear to be mutually unique. Why is that, why is “extra” all the time equated with “higher”?

Back to my outdated digital equalizer. Although it’s already 20 years outdated, it’s fully overkill for the little little bit of sound management it’s now getting used for. Unlike lots of its fashionable counterparts, nevertheless, it’s nonetheless pure {hardware} that works independently with none pc assist. It will also be configured to restrict itself to what’s important for the duty at hand and within reason intuitive to make use of. Not fairly as intuitive because the tone controls from yesteryear, however nonetheless. If the system proves to be sonically clear in linear mode, the outdated field may simply turn out to be a everlasting visitor in my listening room.