Klark Teknik EQP-KT

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.

Okay, i probably should use this for longer than a couple of days before writing a review, but I am just so very impressed with this EQP-KT from Klark Teknik! Just running signal through the unit before switching the EQ 'on' adds character to the sound. I've only ever before played with EQ on plug-ins after the fact but now...i have seen the light!

Obviously, having large dials to turn is always going to be more fun than point-click-drag on plug-ins 'in the box'...but it's about more than the tactile stuff...the difference I have been able to make to guitar tones and my vocals going into my interface has been so impressive.

Having spent good money on v.good plugins over the years, often seeing noticeable but marginal gains relative to the price on my songs/workflow....but i can tell already that this may be the best investment i have made so far. I'm not gonna go full analog, as i haven't got the money/space/cables(!) but i can see that a few choice bits of quality outboard gear, especially on the way in, can make recordings sound better and the process a bit more hands-on and fun.