John
If you want to hear an Australian accent proper at this year’s RMAF you need to head to room 525. Sydney-sider Alan Langford of DEQX is demo-ing their Pre-Mate+ — a full digital and analogue pre-amp that does room correction and subwoofer integration.
The most obvious difference to years’ past is DEQX’s inclusion of a 4.3” 480 x 272 px touch screen on the front panel which allows for input and ‘profile’ selection as well as snazzy VU meters.
‘Round back, XMOS USB, coaxial, toslink plus balanced and single-ended inputs (which are digitised upon input).
DEQX’s mandate is to do no harm to the top end. Their room compensation algorithm is powered by a A8 ARM 1GHz CPU and only corrects issues below 500Hz. This in turn allows for more flexible in-room subwoofer placement. Langford has his sub sat in the right-hand corner behind the listening position – the Pre-Mate+’s time alignment feature takes care of the rest.
At the front of the DEQX playback chain is a MacMini running Windows 8.1 and JRiver. At the business end, a Plinius box powering Magnepan 1.7 loudspeakers. Langford sits off to the side and uses the remote to switch between corrected and uncorrected audio. As per their promo tagline, the difference is anything but subtle. Room-corrected, the midrange is cleaner and more energetic. Bass tightens considerably.
DEQX have recently ditched optioning features so that each Pre-Mate+ comes fully tricked out with Dayton EMM-6 microphone and cable for US$5995.
With DLNA server recognition apparently on the product development roadmap the Pre-Mate+ has very serious potential as an all-in-one unit that streams, decodes and optimises sound in rooms shared with family and/or smaller apartments. In short: a kitchen-sink solution for real-world listening spaces.
‘Strayaaaaaa.
Further information: DEQX
