Douk Audio EQ5 5 Band Equalizer, Mini EQ Car Audio Preamp, Home Desktop Stereo Processor

First off the lights keep flashing but I found out that was due to the extremely cheap power cord they provide. Power cord from a cheap toy is better than this one. So you will have to get a better one and they also do NOT provide a power source. Meaning you have to get your own USB plug to make this work. Second, the sound quality is not good. I can go on and on as to why you should pass on this. It looks good but what is the point of having something that looks good but doesn’t do what it is supposed to.

I use this unit with my turntable, paired with the amplifier and set of passive floor speakers. Sound quality is good, it has these stereo amber-color glowing sound level electro-mechanical dials which add to the vintage look of the set and also has a 5 channel equalizer allowing to adjust the sound to the room's acoustics. There is a nice big knob for the sound level which is distinct and bigger than the frequency adjustment knobs. There is also a balance knob - a nice touch. The BT function works great and I am overall satisfied with this unit. I bought two of them, one for me and one for my son. We both fell in love with the look of the unit. Oh man! These amber glowing dials! It creates a nice mood for music listening in the dark room. Please note that I think it is not an active preamp, the device seems to be a passive filter, so some signal strength loss is expected between the line input and the output from the unit. Also, you cannot power passive speakers from it, you need an amp or active speakers. There is a toggle switch on the panel with which you can bypass the filter completely by switching from EQ mode to bypass mode. There is also a switch to select between BT mode and AUX mode. Beware though that the unit still makes its BT radio available for pairing/connection, even if the RCA/AUX input is selected, so if your turntable has a BT function, but you want to use it in the RCA/AUX function, you should turn off the BT/TX mode on your turntable to prevent it from automatically connecting to the BT.

I had high hopes for this unit. Unfortunately, the sound quality was unimpressive. The sensitivity of the EQ was nonexistent. It colored the sound in an undesirable way. I couldn't get any high end out of it..which was what i wanted it for. It also sucked a lot of the punch out of the sound. The lights on the UV meters were flickering...which is no big deal unless you are prone to seizures, I guess. All in all, I plugged it in, gave it a listen, and then boxed it up and returned it. It's a pity though, because it was a cute little piece of gear and quite heavy for it's size.

I had an Ayiama T9 Pro amp and Polk Signature Elite ES15 speakers and found the sound OK, but wanted more control over the tone…enter an equalizer. I came down to either the Douk T8 Pro (tubes, 7 bands, no Bluetooth), or the Douk EQ5 Pro (no tubes, 5 bands, with Bluetooth and bypass). It came down to more bands, less features (the T8 Pro), or fewer bands and more features (the EQ5 Pro)…I decided to go with the EQ5 Pro. While the EQ5 didn’t have a high-end 16khz band (which I felt was too high to be ‘needed’) or a 50hz low-end band (which I would have preferred), the EQ5 had enough bands placed to give me the control I wanted to shape a crisper sound. Also, having Bluetooth allowed me to shape my streaming feed without an additional Bluetooth receiver and switch (to accommodate my turntable feed). Additionally, having a bypass switch allows me to check/compare the shaped sound to the original feed.I am very happy with the addition and love the difference that it has made in sound… as an added bonus it looks great stacked with my T9 Pro amp. I did pose a question during my research that Douk answered with the following: ‘if you want more control over the sound go with the T8 Pro, if you want more features go with the EQ5 Pro’.The looks and features of the EQ5 made it the right choice for me. While I am very particular about the sound, the EQ5 gave me what I was looking for to bring more punch to my amp and speakers with the added looks and features that I was also looking for.

it does allow me to intercept my powered PC speakers and give me an equalizer, but higher volumes on my PC causes this to clip out sometimes. the meters seem to work properly, and aren't just a gimmick like other devices like this, but I have the feeling you're supposed to use the volume knob on this and keep the output of the device(s) you're linking to it at a constant level out.