Z&H Designs Releases HVC250 Stereo Parametric EQ - A Tribute to the Legendary Sontec MEP-250
by Z&H Designs   2nd June 2024

Ahh here I attached what I was thinking when making that picture. This idea was in my head for long...

I could never foresee what happened to you and it was never our intention to cause trouble. Sorry if we did.

The last thing we wanted to be known as is someone who does fancy paints, so you might realise how little we talk about the customisation despite it is such a cool feature. (I believe you got a lot of respect because you do great EQ meanwhile do fancy colours, it won't make sense with colour alone)

I think it looks "interesting" now because the HVC250 is the only model of ours that has the customiser so far. In the long term, we could have that on many more premium models.

The reason why we offered this feature was because we thought it was a premium enough model. Since custom guitar shops offer that, we should, too.

I hope in the near future, we could be your inspiration. On the bright side of this incident, you are brought up in our thread, got mentioned and maybe become known by more. We would love to share insights and make something great out of this community!

okay, let´s share some insides (hope this helps) and then Im propably out of here

you did 5 years of research - but wrong Q values

I have a couple of HDE250 pics on my website with wrong Q values engraved. I see the exact same wrong numbers
on your units (for instance lowest Sontec MEP-250 Q is 0.4 (some units even lower) not 0.67)

So …you also had this vision of some german guys EQ faceplate design including wrong Q values? And then a colored guitar
appeared in your head that made you create internet stuff that looked almost exactly like the same dudes website?

An indicting pairing of images. I'm not enamored with faceplates, but I just am left wondering why Z & H seemingly encourages customization to the faceplate (which implies the faceplate is not fixed in form) but yet in the marketing they defaulted to the one that was already documented as yours by precedent.

It seems like a pretty easy fix. Since the Z&H faceplates are customizable, and a web page can be changed in an instant. Why wouldn't Z&H simply revise the default layout and change the website to not overlap and intrude on what was already there from you?

I'm not buying the garish guitar excuse. There is indeed of course such thing as convergent evolution. But looking at your run of the mill Google search guitar with stripes doesn't convince me that that was the genesis of your faceplate. Seems like a pretty lackluster excuse.

Sorry to ask for clarification, but your post is a bit cryptic for me at least. Am I to understand that initially you had some incorrect curves posted on your website, that did not match the original unit, and also that the current Z&H products duplicate those incorrect values into an entire product line, including an upcoming mastering version?

That's right. I was the one who called and asked if Custom Audio Germany had opened a new company in England.

The similarity is so great that it is misleading.

Z&H Designs as another company making clones should be a little more creative in my opinion after 5 years of development and work. This blind copying is very dangerous.

It looks like a very uncreative approach to me. We'll see what happens.

It could end up like the SSL bus compressor.
For years everyone copied the same mistake in the schematic and on the board.
With the certainty that it would sound exactly like the original.

Comparative tests will reveal the truth.
I am ready for such a test with my Custom Audio Germany HDE-250.
I am happy with my Custom Audio Germany HDE-250.
I'm looking forward to testing the Z&H Design HVC250.

Considering the great experience, years of work and development of the HDE-250 by Custom Audio Germany, I am currently trying to acquire a second HDE-250 with some modifications.

Outside observer: CAG's creations generally look more or less like CAG.

Some customers may request similarities to other things, yet it's always quite clearly identifiable as a custom made piece of equipment.

Without so many claims about this or that.

Many manufacturers in this space tend to go at length for their products to have identifiable differentiation.

It´s the values around the Q knobs.
Back in the early 2000s when I did the 1st HDE-250 there have not much pictures of original MEP-250s around. All I had was a schematic and a blurry picture with unreadable numbers. So I had to figure the panel numbering out myself. probably due to measuring errors, part tolerances etc I came out
with the highes Q pretty spot on with 4 but lowest Q value beeing 0.67, which is not quite right…should be at least be 0.4 like on the original
This has been corrected later but there are a few HDE-250 units existing and still pictures on my website with those slightly off Q values engraved.
Obviously ZHdesign picked one of those units or pics to copy from and therefore now has the exact same, wrong Q values on their panel. Gongratulations!
(original Q values: 4 - 0.4, not 4 -0.67)
Of course this is only cosmetics and does not affect the sound and it usually doesnt matter much but it shows that all the similarities here are not based accidently on a random vision from the past. Someone made a decision to go that way.

I see, thanks for joining!

We could take that for adding more creativity. As a new brand we are finding ways to incoroprate more design languages of ourselves.

I appreciate your mindset on comparative tests! Sound is what matters the most.

Thanks for sharing!

We are on our way to build an iconic style, not just on functionality like the 1178, but visuals, too.

Please stay tuned and see some new designs of ours soon!

Thanks a lot for all your concern and suggestions. Here is our technician on the 0.67 myth -

As we were trying to base on the original Sontec, we realised the Q wouldn't go as low as 0.4 in test.

So we did some research and decided to take a more conservative figure of 0.67, which is marked by CAG.

In the follow-up tests, we found out it was possible to go about 0.57-0.58.

Plesae kindly check this comparison between a 0.4 fabfilter curve and a 0.67 HVC250 curve shown in the attachment. You are also welcomed to test your own gear to see if the actual value is consistent with the marking.

To conclude, we found something off with the 0.4 value, and referred to CAG as 0.67 was more accurate. It turns out to be a beautiful mistake.

We do appreciate the joint efforts of the professional audio community, also very much hope to communicate with you a lot to make continuous progress.

The 5 years were spent on configuring all components. We ended up custom-make the switches, the DOA, and a lot more, which delivered what's desired in terms of accuracy and quality. Out of any reference, it was the extensive tests that bring you our craft.

The current listings are vintage revives, which is the beginning of our journey. As a young brand still on the way, we will continue to serve you wholeheartedly in the future.

Let's take a peek at the stepped version of this EQ, which is to be launched soon. The apparent dedication to the inside is what we'd love to contribute!

Hi @ Z&H Designs could you please let me know the status of purchasing your products now as regards to the new tariffs in place in the US?

Are your devices subject to the 154% US import tariff on goods from China? Or does this HVC250 have an exemption like some electronics currently do?

I checked an online import duties calculator as estimated for HS Code 9207.90.00.80, which is the standard "Musical instruments the sound of which is produced or must be amplified electrically"



Although the price on your website is $2,249.00 USD, my final price with tariffs would be:

2249+3429.73+112.45 =

$5791.18 USD

Thank you for any info. I'm very interested in this, but there is no way I can afford to be surprised or pay *way* more than double the unit's cost upon import. Maybe I need to wait until this is resolved. Please advise.