wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (05/23/84)
I owned one of the original Soundcraftsmen equalizers shortly after they first came out -- I believe the model # was "2012". Bought it by mail direct from Soundcraftsmen. Its literature claimed that that you could use it between a pre- and power amp, or in a tape loop. I tried using it in the preamp-out/amp-in patch connections of the Kenwood receiver I used at the time, but got horrendous amounts of hum and hiss. I sent it back to Soundcraftsmen, and they sent me another one (this might even have happened twice; memory dims over 15 years or so...). Anyway, eventually, I accepted that it HAD to be used in the tape loop only; even then, there was some irreduceable noise and hum. When I changed to separate components, I still had to use it in a tape loop. As my other components were improved, the equalizer's noise became more irritating, and I seldom used it. It sat in a secondary tape loop and was seldom activated. I eventually sold it to a friend, which was a mistake. His system was stolen soon afterwards, and it was then lost to him, but the main reason was that I wish I still had it. Not to use with any of my stereo systems, but to patch both channels of the equalizer in series, and use it as a very powerful mono tone control and audio filter to play tapes of shortwave broadcasts and DX catches through, to bring intelligibility up out of the noise and interference. Soundcraftsmen were good about warranty service, though. The little flat plastic knobs on the sliders started to crack in two because they were flimsily made, with not enough plastic at the point the slide control shafts went in; I wrote Soundcraftsmen about it and they sent me a whole set of newly-designed knobs. I only used this as a "program equalizer", by the way. I consider an octave-band equalizer too coarse for meaningful room equalization, so I ended up using it only as a fancy tone control. (And, as mentioned above, not at all as my system improved.) So I can't recommend an equalizer to most people. For the special purpose I mentioned, I wouldn't mind finding one cheap. Anybody have one for sale? Will