Which equalizer should I get?

[audaciousgoat]

I have a Sony STR K840P 600w 5.1 reciever. I currently own all the speakers that came with it originally, and I'm looking at getting an equalizer, since the settings on the receiver aren't all that great. Which one should I get, and which cable do they usually use to connect? Attached is a picture of the rear of my receiver. http/

 

[joex444]

Virtually all standalone equalizers deal with analog signals and have physical sliding controls that control a certain frequency band, often 7-15 per channel (mine has 7). At 5.1, this would be 42-90 controls -- it would take up a lot of space and be too fiddly to use. Now your receiver only has speaker level outputs, and virtually every equalizer wants line in-level RCA. So that's just a complete no-go; even if you had 6 RCA outputs you'd still be looking at three separate equalizers (L/R, C/LFE, SL/SR).

The caveat here is that if your receiver is essentially *only* using the multi-channel in, then you can in fact do this with 3 separate equalizers. You'd simply run those 6 inputs into the equalizers, then there would be another set of 3 stereo RCA cables which would connect the equalizers to the multi channel in. On the receiver you would leave everything at default (eg, treble +0dB, bass +0dB) and only use it to control the volume. This would be feasible if you owned either an HTPC and that was your main input or if your main input was a bluray player with built-in audio decoder.

My guess is that you're trying to use your receiver to decode Dolby Digital or DTS via optical or digital coax. In that case you can't intercept the signal and throw it into an equalizer and you can't really build an analog device to modify a digital signal without also putting a decoder in it. It would be possible to get a dedicated decoder, but quite frankly they're more than a set of new speakers and a new receiver would be so you'd be better off just replacing everything you have than trying to go that route.

If you're curious how I have an equalizer setup if I'm basically saying you can't: I only have 2.1 setup and it's only connected to my PC.