This review page is supported in part by the sponsors whose ad banners are displayed below

In late 2011 Jeffrey kindly sent us a Behringer DCX2496 he had modified to capacitor output (basically removing everything after the DAC chip). In his words, "I am not saying Behringer items are quality. They are not. But they use the right AKM chip and you can tap straight from that. A nice feature. I have modified four or five over the years ... I like it for ease of use. Not so simple that it doesn't take a day or two to learn but it is easy. It makes sense and you can overlap drivers ... run one wide open and the next crossed. Very very versatile ... delay... crossover."


In addition to the modded unit I purchased and took the time to pre-calibrate a stock Behringer Ultra-Drive Pro DCX2496 ultra-high precision digital 24/96 loudspeaker management system for backup. The stock unit offers three analog inputs (one suitable as a digital stereo AES/EBU input) and six analog outputs. You get dynamic EQs for level-dependent equalization as well as more musical parametric EQs selectable for all inputs and outputs. There are four different mono and stereo output operating modes all with Butterworth, Bessel and Linkwitz-Riley filters featuring selectable roll-off characteristics from 6dB to 48dB/octave. The delays for all inputs and outputs are adjustable so you can manually or automatically correct for phase and arrival time differences and (according to their literature) even room temperature!


For $350 the stock Behringer is a remarkably good tool and not bad-sounding (perhaps because I was adamantly expecting its performance to be marginal at best). No, the DCX2496 didn’t sound bad. Not bad at all. With little discernible digital grain and a whole bunch of functionality and convenience, I could live with it much like I could live with the stock Wright Sound Company 2A3 monoblocks over those that employ air-gapped nickel output transformers and upgraded tubes. It’s a matter of refinement, priorities and available cash. Fortunately I stumbled upon a very good deal on the latter.

The JJ-modded Behringer was even better than not bad at all, enough so to carry me through until early 2013 when some owners of the DEQX HDP-3 began to upgrade to the HDP-4. At that point I had become somewhat frustrated with the limited processing power of the Behringer. This was not Jeffrey’s fault. Let’s blame Behringer. Or my aspirations. The problem were our very steep crossover slopes which left us with less than optimal power to do all of the equalization we desired.
Behringer recently announced that the "processor performance has been optimized" with "about 15% more processing power available". Based on our needs and experience something tells me 15% would be insufficient. On the other hand the most recent incarnation of the $5.495 DEQX offers serious horsepower with a 240-megaflop 32bit floating-point DSP engine.


Speaking of optimization, one of the things the Behringer can’t do is extract the best possible performance from your drivers. Since drivers pushed outside their optimum bandwidth begin to break up, this may prove to be a critical shortcoming when compared to the DEQX. After all my horny system is built around disparate drivers that have to play well together: B&C 8PE21-8 for the throat horn, RCA model 9584A permanent magnet midrange compression driver and BMS 4540ND tweeter compression driver mated to a tractrix horn. After hearing from Jonathan Scull about a pre-owned unit ready for shipment, it was time to take advantage of the opportunity to see just how much better than not bad at all we could do. To be clear, this is not so much a review of the product (which has been done well at PFO and here already) as it is an effort to wrap things up and put a bow on the Hornographic Pursuits series. It’s time to finish the narrative of our experience that started at RMAF 2006 and now, seven years later, is coming to a close with respect to the build, installation and dialing in.


Enter Larry Owens. Larry is a DEQXpert. What is a DEQXpert? "DEQXpert is a—relatively—new worldwide service available from certified DEQX agents who provide remote or onsite setup, configuration and system tuning. With either option DEQX always works in collaboration with you; we need your hands and especially your ears. You are the final arbiter. There are a number of options and levels of involvement. During onsite services you may choose to leave and come back for a listening session when the work is largely done. Or you may choose to observe as our DEQXpert tailors your system. Of course we always rely on your ears for final tuning. Like all DEQXpert services we can be as cursory or as in-depth as you desire. Using a remote connection we share the same DEQX CAL screen and you’re always free to ask any questions that come to mind as our agent relays his progress. Of course when purchasing remote DEQXpert services we’ll need you more involved; placing the microphone, making cable connections and using your ears to determine the best settings. If you’re more hands-on you may want to choose a remote DEQXpert tutorial session. We’ll start with an overview of DEQX CAL software and the tools available, its organization and the process flow before diving into the complete tuning process."