BehringerMINIFBQ FBQ800 Ultra-Compact 9-Band Graphic Equalizer with FBQ

I am really amazed that this is about the only "in line" EQ that is in existence, without investing in a very high dollar component EQ. And it works amazingly well. I love it so much that I am purchasing a second one as a backup in case the first ever fails and the device might be discontinued.My background...former dance club owner/operator who had a chain of 6 very large dance clubs which had a capacity of 1,000 to 3,000 patrons each, in major markets (Omaha, KC, Atlanta, etc). We were very successful because we delivered the ultimate sensory experiences, with extremely high quality sound systems, spending over 70K in each club on sound gear, using MacIntosh Amps, Urei Equalizers, Crown Crossovers, linked to JBL and Cerwin Vega Professional Speakers and independent array super tweeters. Thus, my personal demands at home, have me using Equalizers on all 3 sound systems in my home (home theater with 144" HD projection screen with amp/EQ/floor standing speakers, and slightly less exotic setups for the flat screens and amps/EQ/speakers in my living room and bed room).I feel that any sound system without external dedicated EQ hardware, dramatically limits its capabilities and quality of listening experience, so I have high end equalizers in all three of my AV setups. I use these in conjunction with dedicated amps and stand alone speakers. Recently I bought a fabulous portable speaker made by ION...the Block Rocker (at Sams). This is now my "go to" mobile sound for back yard entertaining, transport to friends pool parties, take to the lake camping or anywhere else I want mobile sound (in various rooms in my home). The ION puts out fantastic sound, but I can take it to a much higher level using this Behringer. And the Behringer is actually a perfect fit to rest in a recessed tray that is part of the ION's top.Here is my main frustration with today's devices. I have an iPad Air2 with dozens of playlists, to suit different moods, genres, and preferences, with all songs downloaded from hundreds of CD's which I collected over the course of 12 years in the music business. I ripped them in iTunes to get them onto my computer and other devices. My music library has about 3,000 songs in it, on the iPad. Apple may do a lot of things well, but they are absolutely clueless when it comes to EQ. My iPad has ridiculous EQ presets which are totally useless in tweaking the sound to even a marginally decent level. Apple must have used deaf/mute software engineers to create their on preset EQ settings.The perfect EQ curve on a ten to twelve band equalizer is very similar to the slider settings shown on the Behringer product images with their 9 band settings...a "bell curve" that dips in the mid ranges and rises at the low end and the high end.I was extremely surprised, and very happy with the ION speaker but there were certain artists and certain songs that were far to shallow or shrill to be enjoyed, when mixed in with those which sounded fine. The ION does not have any controls on board, other than master volume, so you can't adjust bass, treble, mid range, etc. So I searched far and wide to try to find a compact equalizer which would be as mobile as the iPad and the ION working together to make them really come alive.This little baby did the trick magnificently. And it has the perfect interface cords and adapters to link to whatever you have. This unit has 2 different input and output options, for you. The female input ports include right and left channel guitar plug inputs or right and left channel RCA in. Same for the output. The guitar plugs which come with this unit, feature right and left channel plugs which "Y" terminate into a stereo mini male plug, which allows you to connect directly to any headphone jack (such as smart phone or my iPad). On the output side, I use the Behringer guitar plugs to mini stereo adapter, going to the ION Aux input. This Behringer is so absolutely simple to hook up and use. You do have to plug the Behringer into a power outlet, using the provided 12V brick adapter. And I purchased 10' and 20' cord extensions with stereo mini females at both ends to extend the cord range from the Behringer to the ION speaker, so that I can be sitting in a lawn chair with iPad and EQ at my finger tips, and with the speaker set towards the edge of the deck. Sometimes I do the opposite and set the Behringer on top of the ION and set it to my preferred EQ curve and then run the long cord to wherever I am sitting Lots of flexibility if you have an extension cord to go with what Behringer provides.Once I got it hooked in line between my iPad and the ION, I was amazed at how much better I could dial in the sound to make that ION sound like a speaker 5x's the price I paid for it at Sams. All I can say is WOW. It is obvious that true sound engineers created this device, because they have all the right amenities built in (many of which you might not even find on rack mount EQ hardware). There is a low cut filter which prevents over driving the bass when certain artists songs are pushed too hot (as in pavement pounding bass that some artists boost to uncomfortable levels). This limits the potential for speaker damage when spikes occur that are unnatural and unpleasant.I also like the visuals of the line level controls for both input and for output. You can tell visually when music is starting to "clip" with the green to yellow to red LED lights dancing up and down. We relied on line level clipping indicators all the time in the club business to control sound to comfortable levels within the club (and to protect and preserve the tens of thousands of dollars invested in speakers, which also had redundant custom control limiters built into them). And these same limit indicator lights were essential to recording music mixes that maintained equality of volume and quality of sound, from song to song. So. Unexpected and great addition to this fantastic little piece of equipment.So, my preferred settings are the U-shaped bell curve on the 9 band sliders, with the line level indicator lights fully to the top of the "greens" and dancing very slightly up and down into the yellow zone. First I fire up the iPad and set its volume control to somewhere between 80-100% and then turn the Behringer "Input" line level dial to the point that the lights are all green with momentary flashes into the yellow. Then, as I listen to music, I turn the volume control on the ION speaker to about 50%, which gives me plenty of head room for going louder outdoors, if desired. While listening, I then switch the Behringer level control to "output" and use the level control dial to monitor any clipping that might occur, going to the speaker from the iPad, while again keeping all lights at the top of the green and dancing slightly into the yellow.All in all this unit has all the bases covered, to allow you to get peak performance out of mobile listening experiences, using equipment which might not be part of your more robust home sound systems. HOWEVER, this does not mean that you can't get very satisfactory results by hooking this inline from any amps to any speakers that you might own (especially if you have not invested in high end EQ gear, or you do not want to spend several hundred dollars for a home system Equalizer). I am not sure what it would take to use this in a surround sound multi channel setup, but if you can figure out a way to integrate it, you will be very happy with the results. I personally prefer a 2 channel setup with very high end right and left channel speakers in front, supplemented by 2 channel branches coming from the rear.Even though this is extremely light weight and when you first take it out of the box, your first impression might be "what the heck? Is this some kind of cheap toy?" Believe when I say it is not. No need for a lot of weight and bulk, considering that everything today is driven by little super computers on micro chips in smart phones. Don't let the package fool you. This is one robust piece of equipment that "kicks ass".

Very good device.I use it to change the sound of my electric piano towards the monitors (add more brightness and low end, and reduce some sharpness).It works really well for this!It's a virtually noiseless device, save for when you dial up the volume.At 12 o'clock input volume it sends out the signal 100% of volume as it receives it.Past 12 o'clock, it boosts up the signal.So if your output of your device is pretty low, this device will actually boost the overall volume by around 12dB.Additionally, the 9-band EQ can also boost/cut the volumes upto +/- 12dB.The buttons are pretty self-explanatory.It has a 75Hz cutoff, that will protect your speakers in case of some low frequency popping (like cable disconnect, or so).The second one, is one of those buttons that don't make a lot of sense.In/out is actually to turn on or off direct sound. When pushed in, the light is on, and all buttons and eq of this device work. When off, the sound input is directly routed to the output.In my opinion it makes no sense, because if I wanted to have a direct line, I wouldn't have put this device in between the signal cables.In other words, I think by default this led light and button needs to be OFF, and they need to change it to 'DIRECT', instead of 'In/out'.Meaning, the majority of the time, I will be using this device. The LED doesn't need to be on all the time.But anyway...the 'Input output' button allows you to select to see either input or output volume levels on the eq.It allows you to see if the input level is too hot, or the output level is too hot.The 9band eq works well, however, with the volume dialed past 12 o'clock, the device creates some hiss heard in the last two frequencies (especially when they are boosted) (8/16kHz).FBQ, no idea what this does, however all eq slider leds go off when selecting it, and when playing a tone, the frequency matching closest on the EQ slider will light up. This might be helpful for beginners, when trying to get rid of annoying feedback, or too much frequencies in the room. One can use FBQ to see which frequency offends (the led will turn on), and reduce the volume on that slider.Personally, I don't use it. Anyone with 1 year of more of sound engineering, or who is careful about the sound quality and has worked with mixers before, won't need this feat.Another issue with this is that I've found that some of these leds, actually stop working within a year time.So if you ask me, it's a useless feat, that could have been removed so that the overall price of the device would be reduced.In fact, I wonder why Behringer hasn't yet created a bluetooth operated device that can be controlled by a bluetooth phone and app.No control sliders, no buttons save for power, and perhaps 1 to 4 different modes (banks) that can be saved via the phone. This would easily half the price of the device.Anyway, further on the real device review:6/12dB allows you to select the range of EQ amplification/cut.The EQ sliders from center up to the max will boost the signal by either 6 or 12dB depending on the slider.6dB is for fine adjusting.12dB allows you to adjust some signals that are seriously offending to the ear, and reduces them to a more tolerable sound, better fitting the other frequencies in the spectrum.power buttonback side allows for 2x mono jack, and 2x kinch inputs, as well as the same outputs.Probably the cheapest and best EQ you can buy for the money,Does what an EQ is supposed to do.Great for adjusting sound of music instruments (piano to monitor, guitar to combo, bass to bass rig, acoustic-electric guitar to stage monitor, flute microphone to mixing board,... the possibilities are endless...), home theaters, even changing the overall sound of a PA system right before the signal enters the power amps.