Digital EQ vs Analog

[Beckola66]

Hi everyone. I have currently packed my hifi away in readiness for the move to Spain. I've been pondering the issue of equalisation and the need to occasionally tweak the top end or boost bass or mids in order to enjoy poorly mastered or recorded tracks. I'm aware that Schiit have a couple of Equilisers but before I jump I wanted to get advice on doing this in the digital domain. I currently run Roon/Quobuz but by the time I get to Spain my Roon subscription will have lapsed and I may or may not renew. Do any of you use any other software to run things instead of Roon maybe? Has there been an in depth look at the differences/benefits of with digital or analog eq?

 

[ecwl]

I only listen to digital music. I have never heard of a truly transparent analog EQ although many people who own them think that they're transparent even though that wasn't my experience. As a result, I'm a big proponent of digital EQ although to my ears, digital EQ can still introduce subtle degradation to the sound, just nowhere as obvious as analog EQ. It comes down to whether you can hear it and if you're listening for it. Moreover, you can be much more precise about your digital EQ so while your current place might not need EQ for room correction, your new place in Spain might which is why digital EQ offers you a lot more options.

I've looked into this before. If you only play your own digital music, many different software offers EQ, including my favorite JRiver.
But once you want to stream Qobuz/Tidal, realistically, only Roon offers fully integrated EQ. Everything else requires you to feed the Qobuz/Tidal stream to the computer input and then run it through the EQ software, e.g. JRiver, and then feed it to your DAC. It's a very roundabout way to do things. This is why even though Roon is insanely expensive by comparison to other software, I sucked it up and paid for Roon.

Of course, if you listen to vinyl, analog EQ is probably going to be more transparent compared to digital EQ because digital EQ would require an ADC to convert vinyl into digital first, apply the EQ and then use the cheap digital EQ DAC to playback the sound which would introduce digital artifacts like noise floor modulation and jitter. In that scenario, I can totally see why some people prefer analog EQ.

As a total aside, I've never felt the need to tweak poorly mastered tracks. I think I usually just live with it. However, I use digital EQ to perform room correction. I sometimes see people tweaking their EQ depending on the tracks they're playing. I strongly suspect what is actually happening is that let's say you have a big 50Hz peak and a slight 70-90Hz dip. For musical tracks that has a lot of 50Hz notes, you'll want to turn down the overall bass. But for music that has few 50Hz notes but lots of 70-90Hz notes, you'll want to crank up the bass. This is why it's best to actually measure the frequency response of the system and apply an appropriate room correction EQ so that you're actually hearing what you should probably hear, rather than cranking up and down the bass depending on the musical material.

 

[Beckola66]

I only listen to digital music. I have never heard of a truly transparent analog EQ although many people who own them think that they're transparent even though that wasn't my experience. As a result, I'm a big proponent of digital EQ although to my ears, digital EQ can still introduce subtle degradation to the sound, just nowhere as obvious as analog EQ. It comes down to whether you can hear it and if you're listening for it. Moreover, you can be much more precise about your digital EQ so while your current place might not need EQ for room correction, your new place in Spain might which is why digital EQ offers you a lot more options.

I've looked into this before. If you only play your own digital music, many different software offers EQ, including my favorite JRiver.
But once you want to stream Qobuz/Tidal, realistically, only Roon offers fully integrated EQ. Everything else requires you to feed the Qobuz/Tidal stream to the computer input and then run it through the EQ software, e.g. JRiver, and then feed it to your DAC. It's a very roundabout way to do things. This is why even though Roon is insanely expensive by comparison to other software, I sucked it up and paid for Roon.

Of course, if you listen to vinyl, analog EQ is probably going to be more transparent compared to digital EQ because digital EQ would require an ADC to convert vinyl into digital first, apply the EQ and then use the cheap digital EQ DAC to playback the sound which would introduce digital artifacts like noise floor modulation and jitter. In that scenario, I can totally see why some people prefer analog EQ.

As a total aside, I've never felt the need to tweak poorly mastered tracks. I think I usually just live with it. However, I use digital EQ to perform room correction. I sometimes see people tweaking their EQ depending on the tracks they're playing. I strongly suspect what is actually happening is that let's say you have a big 50Hz peak and a slight 70-90Hz dip. For musical tracks that has a lot of 50Hz notes, you'll want to turn down the overall bass. But for music that has few 50Hz notes but lots of 70-90Hz notes, you'll want to crank up the bass. This is why it's best to actually measure the frequency response of the system and apply an appropriate room correction EQ so that you're actually hearing what you should probably hear, rather than cranking up and down the bass depending on the musical material.

Very interesting reply, thank you. Im still not sure I want to go the Roon route long term so just pondering all the differing options open to me.

 

[ecwl]

Very interesting reply, thank you. Im still not sure I want to go the Roon route long term so just pondering all the differing options open to me.

Right. Before Roon, I used to play Tidal music in Windows and have JRiver capture it and then DSP the music and then use JRiver to play the music. Back then, my PC and music crashed a lot. Maybe it's a bit better now. No idea.

 

[Al M.]

I only listen to digital music. I have never heard of a truly transparent analog EQ although many people who own them think that they're transparent even though that wasn't my experience. As a result, I'm a big proponent of digital EQ although to my ears, digital EQ can still introduce subtle degradation to the sound, just nowhere as obvious as analog EQ. It comes down to whether you can hear it and if you're listening for it. Moreover, you can be much more precise about your digital EQ so while your current place might not need EQ for room correction, your new place in Spain might which is why digital EQ offers you a lot more options.

I've looked into this before. If you only play your own digital music, many different software offers EQ, including my favorite JRiver.
But once you want to stream Qobuz/Tidal, realistically, only Roon offers fully integrated EQ. Everything else requires you to feed the Qobuz/Tidal stream to the computer input and then run it through the EQ software, e.g. JRiver, and then feed it to your DAC. It's a very roundabout way to do things. This is why even though Roon is insanely expensive by comparison to other software, I sucked it up and paid for Roon.

Of course, if you listen to vinyl, analog EQ is probably going to be more transparent compared to digital EQ because digital EQ would require an ADC to convert vinyl into digital first, apply the EQ and then use the cheap digital EQ DAC to playback the sound which would introduce digital artifacts like noise floor modulation and jitter. In that scenario, I can totally see why some people prefer analog EQ.

As a total aside, I've never felt the need to tweak poorly mastered tracks. I think I usually just live with it. However, I use digital EQ to perform room correction. I sometimes see people tweaking their EQ depending on the tracks they're playing. I strongly suspect what is actually happening is that let's say you have a big 50Hz peak and a slight 70-90Hz dip. For musical tracks that has a lot of 50Hz notes, you'll want to turn down the overall bass. But for music that has few 50Hz notes but lots of 70-90Hz notes, you'll want to crank up the bass. This is why it's best to actually measure the frequency response of the system and apply an appropriate room correction EQ so that you're actually hearing what you should probably hear, rather than cranking up and down the bass depending on the musical material.

The analog tone control of my Octave HP 700 preamp is excellent. Activated and put in neutral mode you have to listen very closely to hear any difference with bypass mode. But then, it was also priced accordingly. Friends who have heard the Schiit equalizer say it's very transparent too.

I use the tone control to adjust tracks only in very rare cases, however. Bypass mode is solid default.

I don't need to use digital room correction since I have extensive acoustic treatment of my room, and careful adjustment of speaker positioning does the rest. I prefer to properly adjust the real acoustics and speaker/room interactions, rather than to use DSP as a bandaid. A friend who used to employ DSP for years in his digital-only system has gotten off that train, too. On the other hand, having heard his DSP was I cannot deny how powerful it could be.