Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Visual Audio / Equalizer question

I have seen people with stereos that have like I think what is called a Visual Equalizer on em, its like 20-30 vertial bars that go higher and lower to show the musical notes/bass/voice range/pitch. Is it possible to buy them as an addon piece to a Stereo Receiver?

Thanks

I believe they are called spectrum analyzers, and I highly doubt you can find them as add-ons. They ones included in shelf systems are nothing more than a gimmick to lull the unwary buyer into choosing the most "glittery" shelf system. There are professional pieces of equipment that serve a similar function but are very precise. In your case (I read your other post), one would be prohibitively expensive.

In my opinion, there has been a silly "shelf-system war" going on the past 10 or so years in which each manufacturer tries to out-gimmick the others with more and more blinking lights. If you walk own the shelf-system aisle in any electronics store, you'll see what I mean.

There are some decent pro units that don't break the bank. They'll do RTA or digital EQ for 2 channels (but not both at the same time). One is the Behringer DSP8024 (< $200 US), the other is the Alesis DEQ230. I prefer the Behringer DSP8024 for living space use, the auto-EQ works reasonably well for getting in the ball park on 2-channel material, you've got all the control you need, and cosmetically it's not as ugly in a living space (the rack ears are removable, there's a single backlit LCD).

Unless you're listening to a test source (pink noise, for example), the RTA is pretty useless. I guess some might find it pretty, but it would annoy me to have it enabled while watching a movie and I'd much rather have EQ than RTA (can't have both unless you daisy-chain two units).

The Behringerhas balanced I/O at pro level (+4dBu), I use a Rane BB44X to convert to -10dB unbalanced for connecting to consumer gear.