The recent trend towards ever-more-complicated equalizers and filters has not resulted in any real increase in flexibility, and certainly not in quality.
The EAR 823 «Pultec»-type equalizer is a relatively simple passive device that has been designed to be highly flexible and therefore genuinely useful in any application. As always with EAR products, the highest possible sound quality is of the essence, and the filter circuits are used so as to introduce the minimum possible of disturbing side effects in the way of phase shift and ringing, thus preserving the essential qualities of the signal intact.
It is a characteristic of this device that subtle equalization changes are not masked in effect by the distortion often due to inadequate active filters. Variations in response include low pass, high pass, band pass and high or low frequency shelf, with variable Q and turnover frequency.
The EAR 823MQ mid-EQ is a variant on the 822Q for use in the midband. It has slightly fewer facilities but they are more closely spaced over a narrower frequency span to give greater precision in this critical part of the spectrum.
Specifications:ONS
...Pultec (EQ1-P, MEQ-5, EQH-2), Focusrite (Platinum Voice Master, ISA 115, Platinum Bass Factory), Avalon (VT 747SP, VT 737SP, 2055), EAR 822Q, SSL (E, G), Manley Massive Passive, Amek Angela, Chandler Limited EMI Passive TG Abbey Road Some of the compressors have more than one emulation (like the API 2500 is there in both Old/Normal/Hard and...
...going into Lavry Gold convertors, which was my standard chain at the time. I would have been using an EAR pultec-style EQ on Jim's vocal, along with an 1176 going into an LA2A. I also ran another 1176 set to 'stun' as a parallel, which gets mixed in depending on what's needed...
...shown. Just an interesting observation I've made so far. I also know that Gavin and Ruben regularly gainstage into their EAR EQ. Any chance we could see an update with an input trim (or is that simply the point of the "color" knob)?
Nobody has reviewed this product yet. Have an opinion?