Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Connecting an equalizer to a reciever in 2 ways:

What is the exact difference in sound quality if I were to connect an equalizer to a reciever in two different ways?(with or without tape monitor)?

CONNECTION 1:(EQ to reciever without a tape monitor): The CD player OUTPUT is connected to the INPUT of the equalizer.The OUTPUT of the equalizer is connected to the cd/tape INPUT of the reciever.The cd or tape button of the reciever is selected and the sound is equalized.

CONNECTION 2:(EQ to reciever with a tape monitor): The cd player OUTPUT is connected to the cd INPUT of the reciever.The tape monitor OUTPUT of the reciever is connected to the INPUT of the equalizer.The OUTPUT of the equalizer is connected to the tape monitor INPUT of the reciever.The tape monitor button is selected and the sound is equalized.

If you were to compare the 2 above different connections for an equalizer,what is the exact difference in EQ sound,and which connection offers BETTER sound quality and why? Or will the EQ sound be identical for both connections?Thanks.

The main difference is that if you have the EQ hooked up in the tape monitor loop, that you can equalize any source, not just the CD player, as in your example. Also, by pressing the tape monitor button, you can A/B easily and hear the results of the equalization.

Is anyone doing this now? I'd be interested to hear. I have a H/K 630, and though I love it, the EQing is limited at best. Can you say treble/bass only?

My reciever is a Sony str-de695,and it doesn't have a tape monitor feature.I connect my cd player to the line in of my equalizer and connect the output of my equalizer to the cd in of my reciever.The sound is equalized and sounds good.Im also able to adjust the bass and treble of my reciever combined with the equalized sound to my liking.I could also connect my dvd player and satelite audio to the line in 2 and tape in of my equalizer and switch between all 3 audio sources using the EQ buttons.

I also have a pre-amp and instead of making the connections directly to my equalizer,I could connect my cd/dvd player to the pre-amp and then connect the pre-amp to my equalizer,then equalizer to my reciever.This way works as well,and its hard to hear which method sounds better in sound quality.Maby connecting my cd player directly to my EQ sounds slightly better then connecting to a pre-amp,but im not sure.(or maby using my the pre-amp with my EQ sounds better).

Im very surprised that almost all recievers of today don't have a built in equalizer.Im not satisfied with the treble control of my reciever because boosting the teble at high levels sounds a little shrilled and irritating.That is why I like to use an equalizer combined with the treble(and bass)of my reciever to adjust the sound THE WAY I LIKE IT.Shouldn't the listener have the right to make a choice on how the music will sound like????I'd say YES!!! But I still wonder if connecting an equalizer to a reciever with a tape monitor gives you better equalized sound compared to connecting an equalizer to a reciever without a tape monitor.

Either way should give you the same level of equalization as I believe the output voltages and impedance of the Tape Out and the CD outs should be the same. However, putting the EQ in the Tape Loop gives you the flexibility to add equalization by turning the Tape Monitor on and off and will allow you to add equalization to other components (tuner, phono, VCR, whatever). It will also allow you to do the A/B test to see what impact your equalizer is having.

Sean

Equalizing the sound response in a room is a very difficult thing to do let alone something for home users who have little or no training in such a task.
The idea of the latest gizmos onboard receivers to reduce this task to one of simplicity also creates sound of simplicity. Some people have reported good things from these equalizers but i have a feeling that it is warping the sound response more than anything.
One cannot equalize 19, 980 distinct frequencies (assuming 20Hz to 20kHz) for each shift of a couple of feet in a room with a meagre 10 band equalizer using a 10 dollar, potentially uncalibrated proprietary microphone. If such a thing were possible, ppl like Bren would have been out of jobs years ago, and this home equalizer idea is not a new concept. I recall it was also tried somewhere in the 1980s as well. A stereophile friend of mine still has his bundled microphone that came with the system.

I would be interested to see more information (not from a company) regarding the effectiveness of these new equalizer systems. So far all i've heard about is how speakers are being set out of phase or how a particular band got cranked up several dB.
I used to have a 12 band 'equalizer' on an old Technics system of mine. The only way to make it sound more pleasing was to create a sin curve out of the bands slightly depressing the midrange while heating up the high end and bass.
The day i got my Axiom speakers was the week before i sold that Technics to some poor schlep on ebay.