What the difference in an EQ?

Question

What would be the difference between an EQ from a name brand company or a not so name brand company? What I mean is like you have CEA compliant amps or head units and that will let you know if the product puts out the amount of watts it is rated at but what about an EQ? I know that craftsmanship is the first thing but what else could it be? I have heard people say that Audio Control is one of the best in the biz, but I know Kenwood has been in the biz a long time. Then people will say that a power acoustic or a kicker EQ is bad but what makes the difference. I just used those companies for an example I know that there are many more.

Answer 1

not all name brands are good,,,,but i think there are about 4 to 6 name brands that i would use.

Answer 2

This is an excellent question.

I would seperate CEA-compliance in head units to just the output power ratings given through speaker-level outputs.  In judging EQ's, it's more like the head unit in the sense: Which does the better job of sound quality processing the music source.

I'm biased to Audiocontrol products, but it's not to say that a lot of lesser known car audio companies can't produce a quality EQ.  Your system is only as good as its weakest link, but it's hard to think that even a no-name EQ can make things worse.