[Brandon85]

So to sum up... a few of us here believe in no EQ at all and simply treating the room until the proper sound is achieved.  This approach, however, depends entirely on the user's skill and is purely subjective.  The others among us here seem to believe a good EQ does have a role in almost every scenario.  "Good" in this situation means that at a minumum the EQ has a pink noise generator and matched mic to analyze room dynamics and calculate a calibrated frequency response curve.  In addition:

1.  If your source is primarily analog then consider an analog EQ like the ADC SS-525X which is the purest form of stereo frequency calibration and control because the music always remains in the full analog domain.

2.  If your source is primarily digital then consider a digital EQ like the Behringer DEQ2496 which can take a pure digital input and manipulate it in the digital domain before sending it onward to an outboard DAC for final conversion to analog (or alternatively use its own internal DAC).

What if you have both analog and digital sources?  Of course the easy answer is to have two EQ's in separate analog and digital paths but not many of us have the rack space for that.  There are inherent compromises in both EQ choices, wonder how we'd each choose for a mixed source scenario?

[Brandon85]

The PC sits in my rack in a sexy black brushed aluminum OrigenAE HTPC case, with passive processor and video cooling, Corsair PSU w/ 120mm fan and Noctua low-noise, low-speed 80mm case fans.  The OS drive is a quiet single-platter WD, and the data drives are Samsung low-noise F1s.  It is not totally silent, but fairly quiet - I can barely discern its running from my seating position if no sound is output through the speakers and everything else in the room is off.

Sounds like you've done a great job making your HTPC as rack attractive and quiet as possible.  Just to illustrate my lazy man's alternative approach... although I also once considered building an HTPC for now I am simply using consumer components for both TV and basic stereo.  I use a Tivo HD for recording HDTV and a docked iPod for a general music server.  Both systems are outstandingly intuitive and best of class in what they do.  For stereo anything I want to listen to seriously I put on the turntable or into my Azur 840C cd player.  That said, I still envision a day where all my digital music is stored fully uncompressed in a capacious (1.5 TB+) audiophile-grade music server that has intuitive controls with a RF remote control that displays album art like the iPod.  The product managers at Apple are idiots for not already having built such a system but I digress, I'm sure.  This probably deserves its own discussion thread.

[doug s.]

i use a deqx, both for its eq ability and for its x-over.  as long as the resolution is at least 24/96, and the component quality is good, i would pick a digital solution over any analog solution, even tho i am  big fan of winyl.  (and analog fm.)  imo, whatever negatives are introduced by going to the digital domain, they are so minimal at this point in the playback chain, that the benefits far outweigh them.

ymmv,

doug s.

[MaxCast]

new life.