Australian Financial Review
May 2022
Kim Ryrie, the man who revolutionised the music-recording industry in 1979, has been fine-tuning a device that makes high-quality sound way more affordable.
On his DEQX set-up, Ryrie has switched songs to an a cappella version of The Beatles’ Because, reproduced for Cirque du Soleil’s Love show. Again, there’s that depth and clarity. Background sounds, like bees buzzing and birds twittering, are richer and sharper. Again, it’s like the musicians are in the room.
Stereophile
March 2017
In a field where, as KR puts it, "all automatic EQ systems conflate speaker correction with room correction," the DEQX PreMate stands out: In use, this DSP engine begins by measuring and analyzing the speakers—in exclusion of the listening room, to the greatest extent possible. ... Bass management and, ultimately, room correction can also be implemented with the PreMate: icing on the cake.
Stereophile
March 2017
By using FIR filters, amplitude and phase can be manipulated independently so this constraint can be overcome. The hardware in the DEQX is very well implemented indeed, but it is no match for the esoteric discrete analog stuff. Still, the complete amplitude and time correction easily overcomes this handicap and has given me the best of both worlds. I now have all of the detail, dynamics, smoothness and spacial attributes I have been searching for with the ability to do room correction and frequency shaping as I wish. It is a win-win for me.
John H. Darko
Darko.Audio
September 2016
Results that proved far superior to my own experiments with manual subwoofer integration prior to the DEQX unit’s re-introduction to the system. Results that (would) cast much of this reviewer’s electronic music collection in a new light. Results that ultimately pull the curtain back on what’s missing.
The DEQX PreMATE+ has proven to be quite the revelation, both audible and educationally.
John H. Darko
Darko.Audio
July 2016
The DEQX PreMATE+ has proven itself as capable of two distinct things: 1) improving a loudspeaker’s audible performance through group delay correction and 2) improving its audible performance in-room. Wham and bam. Kapow!
John H. Darko
Darko.Audio
June 2016
The DEQX PreMATE+’s loudspeaker correction proves itself on screen and in-ear that it can take an already great loudspeaker like the KEF LS50 and make it sound (and measure) even better.
The audible improvements are more pronounced than switching up cables, server/streamer, DAC or amplifier. Such is the power of low-latency group delay correction through DSP.
Kalman Rubinson
Stereophile
December 2014
I am unequivocal about my enthusiasm for the speaker-calibration capabilities of the DEQX PreMate. It made my very good speakers undeniably better, smoother and cleaner, and endowed them with a bigger soundstage. It made dense, complicated music easier to resolve, and all music more of a joy to hear.
A paradigm for future stereo systems should be the one I put together, with source selection, processing, control, DSP, and DAC all contained in a single remote-controlled component: the DEQX PreMate. I can't imagine what more one could ask for.
Edgar Kramer
sixmoons.com
July 2014
The PreMate preserved all that is important in classical music such as the sense of space and scale whilst also providing superb differentiation between the different orchestral sections. Violins sounded like grouped individuals playing in unison rather than one large homogenized mass. Where a composition featured a musical prominence in the bass section, the corrected excellence of the DEQX brought the detail and tone of those instruments to an arresting verisimilitude.
The PreMate provided one of the most involving Rock presentations the Wilson Audio Alexia had ever delivered. This was both heard and felt.
Martin Appel
AudioPhilia
October 2013
The quality and natural detail were a joy to experience. The soundstage became larger and grew beyond the room boundaries. Images were further defined and more three dimensional ... its performance, flexibility and capabilities make it an indispensable component and receives my highest recommendation.
Dave Clark
Positive Feedback
May/June 2013
The soundstage is now in focus; there is clarity and separation with spot on localization of whatever is happening wherever. ... Sure you thought you had it all before, but with the DEQX you quickly realize how dazed and confused your music had been prior.
I am also hearing more pace and drive… the stuff that makes the music flow and move: more involvement and life. ...
You really owe it to yourself to hear the DEQX Mate, or the other DEQX products, for yourself. Only then you will realize that it is so hard to go back to what we once believed to be reality.
David W. Robinson
Positive Feedback
November/December 2012
I admit it: I was very impressed by the demos in the DEQX room, and I wasn't sure that I would be. ...
I went. I listened. I was amazed.
What can I say? DEQX is real. The difference that their processors make in the quality of audio playback in a given room space is no illusion, and could make a very significant improvement in many listening rooms.
So DEQX gets a PFO Audio Oasis! Award, easily.
Chris Groppi
Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity
October 2009
The Legend Tikandis with the DEQX HDP-3 are a very special combination. I have never heard better sound in my listening room. The tonal accuracy, frequency extension, and most impressively the ability to pull detail out of recordings was nothing short of astonishing.
... the HDP-3 was virtually ideal, combining the roles of digital processor, DAC, ADC and preamp in one, for a very reasonable price.