Citronic Professional 19" Rack Mountable Dual 15-Band Graphic Equaliser

I bought this to do some "sound-scaping" in my music studio, whether to reduce hiss or creatively. I thought I may need 31 bands but 15 bands has turned out to be fine for my requirements. I really like the bypass switch so you can easily do a/b comparisons, other EQs I've worked with didn't have that. This feature wouldn't matter if it coloured the sound too much, or was ineffective so wasn't worth keeping; this is far from the case however, I have been really pleased. I have occansionally wanted to boost more but the range of the controls is generally good for most purposes.

I feel compelled to write a good review on this Citronic Ceq 215 Dual 15- band graphic equaliser,having spent a reasonable amount money on a pair of new Monitor Audio loud speakers and Cambridge audio amplifier of which I am delighted with especially when listening to classical music both for clarity and soundstage but I have found listening to certain CDs particularly vocals certain harshness and lack of warmth, being able to boost the mid and slightly lower the upper end I am now able to have the best of both worlds in musical audio without having to invest in even more expensive system.I would highly recommend the citronic graphic equaliser for build quality sound and ease of use, therefore I have given the review 5 Stars.

No Manual

not a bad unit it could be better

I bought this graphic equaliser to tame the upper-mid peakiness and brightness in my M-Audio BX5 monitors. It's hard to judge the quality of a mix if your monitor's response isn't reasonably level. Mixing and mastering with speakers that are excessively bright can cause your mix to sound dull on other systems.I've been able to achieve my aim with the Citronic CEQ215 - my speakers now sound much better balanced - but it wasn't quite as straightforward as it should have been. I'll come on to that, but first let's look at the good features:Like other Citronic kit I've used, it's sturdily built in a steel casing. Although it's primarily intended for mounting in a 19" rack, Citronic provide stick-on rubber feet so you can stand it on a shelf. The power supply is built in - no power brick needed - and two IEC mains cable are included in the package: one UK and one European. The mains voltage was correctly set to 230V on delivery.The CEQ215 operates at studio line levels and supports balanced input and outputs on 1/4" TRS jacks and XLR connectors. Each of the two channels is independent and has its own level control, bypass and low-cut switches, which have LEDs to indicate that they are engaged. The graphic sliders themselves are not illuminated - a good thing in my view. All the controls work smoothly and quietly, with no crackles. There is a set of VU LEDs for each channel; useful for indicating that the equaliser is receiving a signal and also for getting your gain staging right.I ran some tests using the RightMark Audio Analyser application and can confirm that the equaliser has low noise and distortion and a flat frequency response when the sliders are centred in their detents.The overall impression is of a competent and professional piece of kit. The reason I can't give it the full five stars is that it doesn't have a ground lift switch. Anybody who has tried to set up an audio system or small studio knows about earth loops - those nasty effects of multiple earthing points that introduce unwanted hum and noise into a system. There any many possible cures for them, but the simplest is a switch which disconnects the case earth from the signal earth. A Citronic power amplifier that I use has a ground lift switch, and it's invaluable.However, when I patched in the CEQ215 I got a lot of really nasty digital hash injected into my speakers. It was only after a lot of experimentation that I found that connecting via the equaliser's XLR sockets rather than its 1/4" jack sockets fixed the problem and the system now runs quietly. Quite a relief as I was on the verge of sending it back, but the downside is that I now have to buy new cables to replace the cables I re-purposed to kill the hash. This expense and waste of my time would have been completely unnecessary if I'd been able simply to flip a ground-lift switch.In summary, this is a good piece of kit that works well, but is spoiled by the lack of a simple 50p switch. Please fix this in the next hardware revision, Citronic!

great little box of tricks. works well