|
Overall Rating:  (out of 20 reviews)
More Info
Description: The AudioSource EQ 200 is a two-channel graphic equalizer, designed for use within a home entertainment system. Each channel features ten bands of boost/cut EQ and all twenty sliders contain illuminated LEDs, which makes it easy to check settings even from across the room.Enjoy precise audio control over your home stereo system with the AudioSource EQ200 10-band graphic equalizer. The device boasts 20 bands of frequency adjustments (10 for each channel) to improve the performance of everything from classic LPs to modern CDs and MP3s. Each EQ slider is positioned one octave apart from the others–from 39 Hz to 16 kHz–to correspond with the entire range of human hearing. To adjust the vocal or instrumental balance of a favorite song, merely move the matching sliders up or down (each features 12 dB of boost or cut) until the right level is reached. Identification is simple thanks to the illuminated LEDs (one for each slider). Plus, the device offers a multicolor spectrum analyzer, which interprets the signal levels of the sliders and displays them onscreen. The analyzer not only helps you monitor the audio output, but it also looks ultra-cool when the lights are low.
The EQ200 features two A/V inputs that offer the ability to control traditional audio sources, such as a CD player or turntable, along with the audio channels of video sources like VCRs or DVD players. To select an audio source, the listener merely presses the A/V button to the “in” position, while leaving it “out” controls the video source. Note that the EQ200 only affects the audio of DVD players or satellite systems. It has no impact on the picture, nor does it include any video-type connections. Users can also connect two cassette decks to the unit through the dedicated Tape 1 and Tape 2 inputs and outputs.
The EQ200 plugs into your stereo through your receiver’s Tape Monitor Loop input. As such, it offers a number of functions specifically designed for connected cassette decks, including a Tape 1-2/Tape 2-1 button that assists you when making tape copies with one deck or dubbing between a pair of tape decks. Listeners don’t have to forfeit the traditional recording functions of their cassette decks, either, as the EQ200’s tape outputs facilitate recording from the radio, CD, or other sources. Other functions include EQ record, which lets you make a tape copy using a customized equalization curve, and the non-cassette-specific EQ bypass, which allows the user to make comparisons between “equalized” and unequalized” sounds.
So of the missing piece to your audio puzzle is the ability to fine-tune your music to meet your demanding tastes, the EQ200 may be a good fit for your system. The device measures 16.56 by 3.5 by 11.88 inches (W x H x D) and is covered by a two-year warranty.
What’s in the Box
EQ200 graphic equalizer, two 34-inch stereo RCA cables, warranty/registration sheet, user’s manual.
- 10-band stereo graphic equalizer with 10 slider controls for each channel
- Sliders range from 39 Hz to 16 kHz; overall frequency response of 10 Hz to 50 kHz
- Illuminated LED sliders with multicolor spectrum analyzer that monitors audio output
- EQ bypass function contrasts between “equalized” and “unequalized” sounds
- Includes 2 A/V inputs and 2 tape inputs and outputs; 16.56 by 3.5 by 11.88 inches (W x H x D)
|
Review submitted by S. R. W.
Author’s Rating:
I disagree with two of the people who have nothing good to say about this equalizer, and understand that they may be expecting it to match the performance of extremely high quality audio equipment — which won’t need it anyway.This equalizer is extremely useful if you are trying to listen to — say — tapes of old time radio, shortwave broadcasts, or noisy AM signals. You can reduce harshness, improve bass response, and reduce noise effects. However, it does have some limitations, related to its low price. At $20 retail price, such a helpful and flexible gadget will not have perfect audio performance, and it doesn’t. There is a SLIGHT hiss audible at all times, apparently intrinsic in the audio chip used for the headphone amp. The hiss is introduced after the volume control; it’s there all the time. Depending on the input voltage of the device to which it’s connected, the hiss can be as loud as -30 dB, or as soft as -50 dB or lower; and it is predominantly a very bright hissing. So extremely efficient, bright headphones may exaggerate it. I hope Koss improves this device in a future model; but for low fidelity source material, and with phones that are not extremely bright, the hiss introduced by this device is MUCH, much lower than the hiss intrinsic in a tape, radio broadcast, or old recording and will quickly be ignored. If, however, you are hooking this to a CD player to listen with excellent phones to wideband digital recordings, you’ll notice the hiss — and be annoyed, depending on your sensibilities.I am glad I purchased one. My intended use was to listen to cassettes of old time radio shows. Many of the commercial tapes are not well corrected and sound extremely harsh and thin; this equalizer fixes that quite nicely. The bands are well chosen to have an aural effect where poor recordings have flaws. For background: I am a retired audio engineer with three decades in broadcasting and recording, and an enthusiast of OTR and recordings of old classic performances of music from the fifties back to the twenties, many of which NEED help that this equalizer can provide.
Review submitted by Michelle L. Gilbert
Author’s Rating:
First off… note: I don’t use this for my MP3 player. I’m a medical transcriptionist who spends her day immersed in technical dictation by doctors with heavy accents, surrounded by background noise, often speaking nearly inaudibly. This thing has saved the day for me. The EQ on the unit helps allay the inconsistency in sound quality from one dictator’s environment to the next. The volume control has made even the quietest dictations perfectly audible.
My accuracy and production have increased measurably in the four or so years I’ve used this thing, with not a single problem with the unit itself, though I do, of course, go through a lot of batteries.
So the short story is… if you are looking for some fancy high performance gadget for your Ipod, this probably isn’t what you want. If you don’t need packaging glamour, or if you’re looking for something to help you decode quiet spoken word recordings, this is probably what you want.
Review submitted by Tom Rix
Author’s Rating:
There is a little story before this:
I bought a pair of Sony MDR-XD100’s (they are full cup headphones) because I lost the earbuds which came with my mp3 player (Sony HD5). I took them out of the package and found that, even at full volume on the player, it cannot drive the headphones sufficently. I went to a few electronics stores then found the KOSS EQ50.
On with the review:
Yes, there is a slight hiss, but I find it alright. The biggest gripe I have is that whenever someone within about 2-3 ft (IE, on a bus or subway) uses a cellphone, this devices picks it up. You can get the same effect by using a cellphone next to an unshielded pair or speakers. I do most of my listening at home so this won’t bo too much of an issue.
It also does a great job of amplifying the signal, it works very well, I can now listen to my XD100’s properly (and they are very good!). I haven’t used the EQ much but what I can say is that it is very, very sensitive. Raising the bass slider a third above normal makes a massive difference. At a half, my headphones start to distort.
If your looking for a nice little EQ and/or preamp this is the product for you. It has its drawbacks though, mainly the problem with cellphone interference and of course, the hiss but it isn’t too loud & I can live with it.
I reccomend this product if your looking for a budget portable equalizer or headphone amplifer.
Review submitted by
Author’s Rating:
Unfortunately, I disregarded the pervious reviewer and purchased this product anyway. It is very noisy (heavy hissing)–totally unacceptable. I’m highly disappointed in Koss.
Review submitted by R. Kallio
Author’s Rating:
As a musician, my ears are very acute to detail in sound quality. I like to walk and listen to music, so I own a few MP3 players of various brand names. The problem is, an MP3 file (meaning song) is compressed, or reduced in size. Therefore, many songs do not sound as pure, clean and full in MP3 format versus the full non-compressed sound of a normal CD. While many MP3 players have built-in equalizers in the menu section that allow you to adjust your highs/mids/lows, the sound is still NOT as good as it could be. So how do you truly enhance the tones of your music? Buy this Koss unit. The 3-band EQ is surely enough to give you the tone adjustments you will need. It uses two AAA batteries (not included) and DOES include one cable that attaches your MP3 player’s headphone jack to the Koss EQ “input” jack. You then plug your headphones or earbuds into the “output” jack on the Koss.. Think of it this way. The sound comes out of your MP3 player and goes into your Koss EQ, then from your Koss, the music goes to yoru headphones so you can hear it. The Koss has an On/Off switch that you MUST remember to turn OFF when you are not using it so that you do not wear out your batteries. Along with this, I recommend you purchase Sennheiser PX 200 folding headphones that give you a true powerful bass sound. These headphones, combined with the Koss EQ will be the ultimate sound accessories to ANY MP3 player. Believe me…I do NOT waste time posting a review unless I truly believe in the product.
The choice is yours, but if you want your music to sound premium, this is the dynamo recipe!!!!
Review submitted by Tuliproom
Author’s Rating:
I read another review on here complaining about the “sticky buttons” on the Audio Source EQ 200. After reading another review saying their unit worked fine with no button problems, I decided to take a chance, hoping that the other reviewer’s button problem was an isolated incident. Wishful thinking. I’ve had the EQ 200 for about a week and the same problem showed up on mine. I was listening to an old album on my turntable when one of the stereo channels just cut out. At first I thought it might be a loose cable, or worse, a problem with the cartridge on my turntable. Then I remembered the review about the “sticky buttons.” Sure enough, I went to the EQ and jiggled the buttons, and the sound cut in and out as I did so. After jiggling them a few times the problem went away for a while, then it out of nowhere started acting up again. It’s not so much that they “stick,” as it is that they just plain don’t work properly. The have a “cheap” feel to them; all the switches appear to be mounted to a single flimsy bracket. When you press one switch you can see the adjacent ones move. Besides the fact they don’t work, they are confusing and limited the way they are formatted. They don’t let you monitor the tape deck’s output when recording; something that should be a standard feature of an EQ. The buttons on my old Radio Shack/Optimus EQ made a lot more sense in how they operated for dubbing/monitoring. There are a couple other annoyances on the Audio Source, too. The analyzer display has no sensitivity adjustment; when I play my CD player, the display is just maxed out. You can adjust the display by turning down the input level knobs, but I only want to turn down the display, NOT the volume! The “0″ line on the EQ should be a different color for easily identifying the relative position of the sliders, but it is simply white like all the lines, which makes it difficult to easily identify the center line. If I were keeping the unit, I would take care of this problem with a magic marker. There are also no scale markings on the input level control knobs, leaving you to guess as to when you have the left and right balanced. The sound quality seems decent when it works, but what good is a stereo component if the sound cuts out while you’re listening to your music? The illuminated sliders and spectrum analyzer look neat, but hey, I don’t buy a stereo component just for looks. Seeing as other people have complained of the same button issue, I’m sure Audio Source has to be aware of the problem. Obviously, they are not going to invest the resources to correct the problem on something as obsolete as a graphic equalizer. It’s too bad, since this model seems to be pretty much the only EQ left on the market for a home stereo. The only other EQ I found other than professional models for rack-mount systems, was a TEAC model which doesn’t have as many inputs as the Audio Source. I am returning the Audio Source for a full refund; no sense having them send me another one when undoubtedly it will have the same defect. I guess I will try my luck with the TEAC, either that or put up with the muddy sound my stereo has without an EQ. I will just have to do the old cable swapping routine if I want to do any dubbing with the TEAC.
Review submitted by Aaron J. Laroux
Author’s Rating:
I listen to a lot of music, and I’ve learned through the years that onboard equalizers for stereos are usually pretty worthless. So, in owning a relatively inexpensive(I paid around $500 for the Component Stereo and CD Player a few years back) sound system, it was worth my money to get an EQ that I could control. Now I’m going to admit right now, I’m a picky person when it comes to asthetics, which is partly why I bought the EQ200 in the first place. The unit is laid out very well, and looks better as a component than any other EQ on the market(outside of the recent Technical Pro brands(but from what I can tell, they’re [...])). The sound quality, once you’ve tuned it into what your preference is, is absolutely top-notch. One of the best things about a good Equalizer is the ability to make an okay stereo sound like a system that costs much more than it actually is. The precise and accurate reproduction of the sound that comes from this EQ would make you expect to pay much more for the quality(as it makes CDs really come to life). I cannot express to you the difference this EQ will make with the right adjustments.
But here’s my one gripe with this unit: it cuts out my audio channels for no particular reason. I have had 3 Units that do this, all show the symptoms within a month or two of breaking in. I know that it is an issue with the EQ, but I’m not so sure that it’s the EQ at fault, so much as a disagreement somewhere between the stereo and the EQ itself. To explain(and not to discourage you from buying this EQ), I have an old Optimus EQ that I bought to literally replace this EQ(no where NEAR the quality) because of the problem, and the Optimus has never cut out on the channels. However, when I plugged the EQ200 into my alternate headphone stereo(1974 Scott Solid state, runs into my computer) I have not had a single problem with it. No removal of audio passage, no cutting out. So I’m convinced that my 5.1/Listening stereo does NOT agree with this Equalizer. What I cannot figure out is why it takes 2 months of clean operation for this to happen.
Also to be fair to Audiosource, every time I’ve had a problem with this unit, they listened to me, and replaced the unit for free. Even if they found nothing to be wrong with it(sent the last one in for repairs), they replaced it for me. I cannot complain about a company that’s actually willing to help out its customer base.
4 stars only because of my inability to use it on my main stereo. But whatever, I’ll be replacing that stereo in the next year or two anyway.
Review submitted by S. Surdey
Author’s Rating:
I just purchased this unit through Amazon.com, and never having owned one before, I didn’t quite know what to expect. It arrived promptly, and even though the box it came in wasn’t placed inside of another box, (for shipping purposes) it was fine. The instructions seem to be translated from Chinese, but they are fairly basic, and clear. It seems to perform as you would expect a graphic equalizer to do, bringing out the parts of the music you want to enhance. It gives you all of the options you need, except for one. There are two inputs for two tape players, but only one input for either a cd player, or video tape/dvd player. There might be a way around this, but it would be better if it already had that option for both. Other than that, I think it works great! I am very pleased with the way it makes my music sound, and the graphic display is very impressive, as well as fun to watch! Contrary to the other review of 3 years ago, there are no sticky buttons. (I didn’t think there would be). I would say that there may be better ones out there, but for the money, it performs admirably.
Review submitted by Robert Bruce
Author’s Rating:
This product does not work. I purchased this product to replace a Faulting ADC 215 Equalizer. This was the only choice on the market. After getting the unit I was able to connect it quite simple in to my system. I have a DBX unit for my Reel To Reel and had to connect it directly to the Reel To Reel, not much of a problem. But then the problem started to unfold. First the buttons, They are confusing, and don’t work half the time. Then I noticed that I could not monitor tape recording output from Three head Deck and DBX record monitoring. With the EQ connected to a deck that monitors it seem to short the input to the output, causing the input level control not to respond, not distortion but not good for you tape deck. After that I started tested a different configurations. I have a 2 Head deck, So I connected it to the EQ 200 and it worked okay, but still had problems with the buttons happened again. I then connected the Reel to Reel without DBX, direct bypass the monitor loop and it worked okay for the first few times, then all of a sudden I could not record on the Reel To Reel, the input controls didnot work and the signal to the meters were pegged, not good, then I losted the 2 head deck. Powered off everything and tried again. After several reset everything worked again. So I decided to give this unit one more try, by adding one piece at a time and testing one piece one piece at a time. I added the Three Head Deck (Teac V711), to Tape1, then tested, worked okay for a while and then things started not working. Remember this is just 1 TAPE DECK !!!!!! connected. Powered off all components and things went back to working. I said okay maybe it is me let me read the manual more closely. Figured out the button (Tape 1>2/Tape22 + Audio/Video + Line/Tape LED Green. Okay that worked, only for about and hour and then same problem happen, input controls stop working and meter pegged and again this is just 1 TAPE DECK CONNECTED !!!!!.
What I have found out after opening the unit and putting it on a Oscilloscope, I found that the contacts in the switches are very poorly made and are solider to close together and are causing electrical interference. When a button is depressed and testing the contacts on the Oscilloscope showed a little ambient noise -75dbm level, which is okay, but as you use the switch the noise level increases until it shorts, that is why when you power off and let the unit sit and power back on it works okay that is kind of a electrical discharge so to speak and the ambient noise is back to around -70 ~ -75dbm. The open circuit test fluctuated from inf to 10K ohm resistance. Closed circuit test revealed from 0 ~ 1 ohm resistance on average but fluctuated to inf at times. That why the sound cuts out and the input shorts to the output.
So all in all the unit went back for a refund. Please don’t buy this unit. It is low quality and poor craftsmanship that it will not last more than a month or so. It does not support tape monitoring, and don’t try to connect a Three Head Deck it will short out your Deck. The buttons don’t work and short constantly. Tape to Tape dubbing is limited to only monitoring source, THAT IS CORRECT, when dubbing you can only list to the source Tape and not the dubbing tape to insure that the deck is recording okay. This is a very poor design!!!
Review submitted by D. Brown
Author’s Rating:
While the quality of this product is great, I highly recommend you find ANY other source to purchase than etronics! All the customer reviews I have read are poor and this one will be worse. They shipped us the wrong product;they wouldn’t respond to us to get the right product, when they finally did send the right product, a month later we got the bill to pay for shipping the wrong product back to them! There is no way to contact them other than email. This place is a scam! Get the equalizer, from anywhere but etronics!