At first glance, an EQ with only four control bands might appear to offer less flexibility than the typical graphic EQ with dozens of sliders, but closer examination will show that by letting you adjust both the center frequency and steepness of the adjustment filter, a parametric EQ lets you fine-tune the response in a way that no graphic EQ could ever come close to achieving. Then, when you add in the R-DES’ low-pass crossover and high-pass subsonic filter, the whole package becomes a truly versatile set of tools for solving bass issues.

All this flexibility is useless if you don’t know how to use it. Fortunately, Onix’ software is easy to use and somewhat educational, as well. Record your system’s response, make adjustments, and see the effect of those adjustments on screen.

Like Jessica Simpson driving a Lamborghini, all of this power might be wasted unless there was an easy way to figure out how to twist all of those (virtual) knobs. To sort this out, the R-DES comes with some tools to help you determine the adjustments you need to make. First, you examine your subwoofer’s in-room acoustic response by measuring its output at different frequencies. A disc that comes with the R-DES contains a series of test tones that you play through the sub, while measuring the response with a Radio Shack model 33-4050 sound pressure level meter (not included). At each frequency, you note the level and enter the results into your computer using a program called Onix Graph Paper. As you proceed, the Graph Paper program will draw a pretty (or not so pretty) picture of your sub’s in-room performance, which you can then use to create a correction curve for the equalizer. The Graph Paper program even has an adjustable compensation setting to correct for the weighted response of the Radio Shack meter.

Once you are done, you connect the R-DES to the computer and upload the correction curve into its EPROM memory. The R-DES can store up to four curves at a time, which you can then select between using a button on the face of the unit. This means that you can have different settings for action movies and orchestral music, or you could have a setting for one seating position and another that averages multiple positions.