CONEQ APEQ 2pro

[grandmasters]

Originally Posted by kosmokrator

Floored..!

I REALLY didn't want to like it. It just feels..wrong..

But having used it regularly as freelancer in a studio with nice acoustic treatment and PMC IB2 speakers, I had to get it for my own place with B&W 802D.

Got it, and.....simply amazing..!

You have to be careful with digital room eq. If you're working at 96khz, you need to keep in mind that this eq will sample at 48khz so you're not really 'hearing' your high resolution single path.

Dolby, DBX and BSS all make 2 channel room eqs and processers that sample at 96khz, though they are expensive. (and so does this company but it seems only the 8 channel version). There is a version of the Dolby Contour made for the Claire Brothers that sells for around $1300 on ebay.

It's not the biggest deal in the world but for mastering it's something to be aware of.

[kosmokrator]

Originally Posted by grandmasters

You have to be careful with digital room eq. If you're working at 96khz, you need to keep in mind that this eq will sample at 48khz so you're not really 'hearing' your high resolution single path.

Dolby, DBX and BSS all make 2 channel room eqs and processers that sample at 96khz, though they are expensive. (and so does this company but it seems only the 8 channel version). There is a version of the Dolby Contour made for the Claire Brothers that sells for around $1300 on ebay.

It's not the biggest deal in the world but for mastering it's something to be aware of.

Non-issue for me as I almost never use anything higher than 48k.

It's not really a room EQ either. It EQs the speaker response. Don't ask me for details, but actuall you take at least 200 measurements in different points for each speaker. My guess that they are interpolated to minimize the effect of the room.

I actually looked at the filed patent of Real Sound Labs, but it's over my head to be honest.

I trust my ears though. It simply works. And I can't say the same for any other 'room eq' I've heard so far...

Disclaimer: I have nothing to do at all with that company. I didn't even buy it new.

[JP__]

Speaker corrections only works in rooms that are death acousticwise, or outdoors.
In "normal" rooms you ever also correct your room response. And at the point you have to measure for the coneq your room will sound completly different from the sound at the listening position... So in reality you correct a point in your room where you never listen at.
This is mostly regarding reflections (combfilters) that are always depending from the postion of ls and lp in the room
If you choose your listening position regarding a good even bass response you have to measure at point between the speaker and lp, where bass is very low. Now think what coneq will do...
You can´t take the room out of your speakers.
So one have to be very careful what to correct exactly.

I thought a lot about this kind of correction system. I see no sense in doing it like coneq ...

Better use it as a normal room eq, I think.
Also prices for the measurement software are very high, and everytime you change only a little bit you have to measure again.

[kosmokrator]

Originally Posted by JP__

Speaker corrections only works in rooms that are death acousticwise, or outdoors.
In "normal" rooms you ever also correct your room response. And at the point you have to measure for the coneq your room will sound completly different from the sound at the listening position... So in reality you correct a point in your room where you never listen at.
This is mostly regarding reflections (combfilters) that are always depending from the postion of ls and lp in the room
If you choose your listening position regarding a good even bass response you have to measure at point between the speaker and lp, where bass is very low. Now think what coneq will do...
You can´t take the room out of your speakers.
So one have to be very careful what to correct exactly.

I thought a lot about this kind of correction system. I see no sense in doing it like coneq ...

Better use it as a normal room eq, I think.
Also prices for the measurement software are very high, and everytime you change only a little bit you have to measure again.

Yeah, I know, it cannot work. I was completely sure about that as well.

Until I listened to it.
Want to know my guess? People don't WANT something like that to work.
I know I didn't.

[JP__]

Testet it myself. Measurements near the speaker didn´t work well, as I suspected.
But never say never again... So maybe I give it ones more try.

But price for software is impudently

[Chris Bauer]

I bought the software version a couple of years ago and have experimented with it quite a bit. Honestly, I am still not quite sure how I feel about it. The acoustics in my mastering room are pretty good and CONEQ certainly does something to add more neutrality in the listening position. However, I can't say that my masters are coming out any better when using CONEQ. Maybe it's because no one has the perfect listening environment that CONEQ is trying to emulate. It's definitely worth trying. I also have the ARC software by IK Multimedia, but I think that CONEQ does a better job, especially if you have the version that allows you to tweak certain parameters (Workshop).

[frenzy]

Originally Posted by kosmokrator

Yeah, I know, it cannot work. I was completely sure about that as well.

Until I listened to it.
Want to know my guess? People don't WANT something like that to work.
I know I didn't.

I've tested the ConEQ measuring and hardware in my control room and it worked pretty well. As a freelance technical writer I've tried most correction systems and ConEQ performed really well. The best system I've tried is the Trinnov system, but it's expensive and introduce too much latency for music production.

What I liked about ConEQ was that it didn't change the sound too much, just fixed some low-end anomalies which also opened up the mid-range a little bit.
I did hear the sound of the convolution processing altering the depth and transient response a little bit. It's subtle but once I homed in on it I couldn't think it away.

I've drawn a good ticket in the room mode lottery and the low-end partially absorbs by the thin walls of my control room.
I prefer the natural sound of my analogue Meyer CP10 EQ notching out two frequencies in the low-end and add a little bit around 400Hz. More transparent than ConEQ, but of course not as much correction.

All in all, ConEQ is impressive and better than I thought it would be. The price is okay for a hardware system. I would have no problems using ConEQ in an acoustically challenged environment.


Just my two cents

Fred
Sound On Sound contributor

[audiokid]

Interesting to find this. I have a few hardware units sitting here that I made a deal on to promote this product a few years back on RO. I wasn't however able to get this to work correctly with with active monitors. Its been a while since I tried this again, as I've upgraded my monitoring chain since but still using Actives. The concept is impressive but like some here voiced, it does make me nervous putting something like this in the monitoring path.

If I recall, the hardware needs to go between a power amp, didn't work right for Actives, the levels didn't match and volume changes screwed it all up because of that. Going between the power amp, this isn't a problem. They were to get back to me but I never heard from them again. I couldn't give them a fair shake.
How are you placing this in the chain?

[kosmokrator]

Just before the power amp. That's with my B&W N802.

Another studio I'm working a lot at has it after the monitor controller before the PMC IB2 speakers, which are active.

Works like a charm.