Dangerous Music BAX EQ

If you’ve ever adjusted the bass and treble on a hi-end stereo system, a boom box or even a car stereo, then you’ve used a Baxandall EQ. Originally designed by the now legendary electronics designer Peter Baxandall, they are the world’s most popular EQ curves for a good reason: they dramatically improve the sound of anything thrown at them. The Dangerous Music BAX EQ is the first professional, stand-alone EQ to deploy the famous Baxandall curves. This version has become an instant classic among mixing, mastering and tracking engineers.

At the foundation of this stereo unit are subtly comprehensive treble and bass EQ shelves (the Baxandall curves) that provide refined yet profound control over wide sections of the frequency spectrum. The Dangerous Music BAX EQ is all about seasoning sounds with broad, musical adjustments. Beginning way beyond the limits of human hearing, the extensive and gentle EQ curves gently tug at audible frequencies in ways that other EQs cannot. This unique design delivers a discernibly sweet and open treble along with a powerful and three-dimensional low-end that is, simply, unavailable from other EQs.

Most professional EQs introduce phase delay and other audible artefacts, otherwise known as colour, on their bass and treble shelves. The BAX EQ’s shelves retain phase coherence, and, because it is constructed from the same ultra-high-grade components used in all Dangerous Music equipment, the BAX EQ does not alter the characteristics of the original sound. Here lies the paradox of real analogue transparency: possessing the ability to make powerful changes without substantially modifying original sonic characteristics. As opposed to introducing additional colour, you’ll hear the original colours more beautifully, more openly and more powerfully, no matter how far you push it.

Beyond the easy-to-use shelf controls, the BAX EQ is armed with complex filtering options that greatly improve its versatility. The cut filters on either end of the spectrum dial out surplus frequencies that will be enhanced at the far end of the shelves. On the low end, you can cut below 12 Hz, where headroom-eating, infrasonic rumble and DC-offset live. On the high end, you can dial out ultra-sonics like 70 kHz that can carry out-of-band noise, often translated into harshness in many A/D converters. Start playing the cut filters against the shelves, a new universe of matchless tone-shaping opens up within the audible frequency band – sounds that are simply unavailable elsewhere.