Fantastic EQ regardless of price, and for the money it's crazy value, imo.
Great top end, even greater low end. The curves are different from the Pultec plugins I use alot, and the cut is way more "responsive", meaning a few notches go a long way to do the "pultec trick". I have never used other hardware Pultecs/clones, but only heard them and seen curves on youtube. I find that every clone or plugin sounds and works a bit different, and that what’s better really is subjective. To me, this EQ sounds great and beats my plugins, so I won’t be looking for an “upgrade” anytime soon.
The added frequency steps are cool, and really adds a lot of shaping possibilities. This EQ can do way more than I expected at first.
So happy with it that I bought another one, and luckily, they're pretty much perfectly matched both in gain and curves, even though there were several months between my purchases. I have read about other people having minor differences between their units - I don't know if I'm just lucky, or something was fixed in their QC.
As a side note, I really dug into reviews and discussions about this EQ (there is A LOT) and I heard a lot of posted clips with swapped tubes, comparisons with other clones, etc., and although different tubes sound slightly different, they don’t necessarily sound better to me. There are also so many things that can go wrong when comparing EQs and tubes regarding gain- and curve matching, which makes it really difficult to judge, if you don’t have the gear you’re comparing in front of you yourself. Maybe it’s just my ears, my listening situation, my taste or whatever, but the stock tubes will stay in mine until they die.
The only “downside” (or upside, depending on who you’re asking) is that these two units take up 4 Us in the rack – nice with big buttons, not so nice if rack space is limited.
