Equalisers are a vexed issue, some hate them while others love the idea of having all those extra "slides" to play with on their system!
DOWNSIDE:
Introducing extra items in the normal audio signal chain COULD introduce additional noise and/or colour the overall sound system so some listeners would not like ANY equalisers in their sound system - often these same people have been cursed with "superior" hearing and can hear the difference between say "standard" speaker cable and OFC speaker cable.
UPSIDE:
Equalisers can come in handy to change the audio characteristics of just one component of your sound system or overall frequency response adjustments to a complete system with much more detailed control over various frequency bands than those offered with the standard BASS-MID-HIGH tone adjustments on an amplifier front panel.
Lots of sliders to play with! (some like this, and why not?)
TEAC is the consumer division of TASCAM, their professional products division. This TEAC EQA-3 was designed and targeted at the consumer market, ordinary Joe-Blow who just wants a great sound system and doesn't want to bother with all the finer points of audio.
That said, the EQA-3 is not noisy and if set correctly by the user it will not overly "colour" your sound system.
We actually found EQ equipment to be extremely useful for our previous "forensic audio" work, where the client provided a precious tape recording of spoken word but carried along with that audio was a lot of additional chatter (background noises). By using an EQ unit carefully, it is possible to kill off the extraneous sounds substantially and just "suck out" the wanted spoken word. Similar thing in the home, if your listening environment has unpleasant resonances (high volumes causing windows rattling, glassware buzzing etc), you can use an equaliser such as this TEAC to "tune" your system to substantially reduce some problems caused by resonance.
Another possibility is to use in a PA system (single or two channel) by being inserted between the microphone pre-amplifier output (must be line level though) and the PA input. Useful to reduce the onset of acoustic feedback from the microphone, you can "tune out" or make the system less sensitive to frequencies that promote howling feedback when the speaker is not handling their microphone correctly.
METHODS OF USE:
There are a number of ways to "insert" your equaliser into your sound system, here are just some possibilities
a) If your amplifier has access to the pre-amplifier output and the power amplifier input (usually linked in some way with an external link or cable) this is one point that could be used to insert the equaliser.
b) If your amplifier has a set of tape rec inputs and outputs, insert here.
c) Insert between any one component of your sound system and the main amplifier input but realise that the equaliser will ONLY change the frequency response (tone) of that one component. This method is NOT SUITABLE for phono inputs (turntable), the levels are far too low - but "normal" line level components such as cassette machines, CD players and tuners will be fine.
This component has a MINOR COSMETIC issue (one slider knob has fallen off and I cannot find it!) but it is fully functioning - please read my full description below ...
TEAC Stereo Equaliser
Made In Taiwan
Australian standard 240V AC power input
Model: EQA-3
Recommended input/output level -dBV (320mV)
Overall system frequency response 5Hz ~ 100KHz +/- 1dB
Signal/Noise Ratio: 80dB
Input impedance: 100K
Output impedance: 600 Ohm
Maximum distortion: 0.03%
2 channels (left-right)
2x stereo input channels (switchable from the front panel)
Single stereo output
Tape record input/output connectors for insertion into a system with such inputs/outputs (older gear)
10 frequency bands with response variations -/+ 12% on each possible
Centre frequency of the bands are:
30Hz
60Hz
125Hz
250Hz
500Hz
1KHz
2KHz
4KHz
8KHz
16KHz
Basic Equaliser IN-OUT and Power ON OFF front panel indicators
NO flashing lights, no "spectrum analyser" display - this is one of the earliest model TEAC EQ's they released, no fancy bars of light moving up and down while the music plays! (that's a spectrum analyser showing you the relative frequency components of your music) Not having one of these is not a big issue (unless you like lots of flashing lights that is) because this component is for your EARS not EYES.
2x stereo RCA male to RCA male leads are supplied with this equaliser, to make life a bit easier for the new owner to setup - nothing to buy!
NO MANUAL IS PROVIDED - not that you would need one, these are not difficult components to setup and use.
COSMETIC CONDITION:
Very clean
No major scratching, just a couple of very light marks to the top of the metal case
No dents or other "drop" damage
All labelling is clear and easy to read - no wear
ONE SLIDER KNOB HAS FALLEN OFF AND IS MISSING - the slider remains fully functional, just the little knob (push fit slot type) has gone AWOL.
ID security information is scribed into the rear panel centre area and this cannot be removed although you could cover it with something like a label if it bothered you.
TESTING:
I used BOTH line inputs (this equipment has two line inputs, selectable from the front panel) and the output taken away to a NAD power amplifier. No issues at all, I was easily able to alter the "tone" of the sound system depending upon my "tastes". No scratching or other noise while sliding the band controls.
I then made the same test using the tape input/output sockets and again, no issues.
Finally I also checked the front panel ON-OFF EQ button (takes the Equaliser out of circuit and is supposed to provide a straight through signal path) and this worked fine as well.
Nice TEAC component and for those who really feel the need to have a good quality consumer grade EQ in their audio system, this will do the job nicely.
