Elysia Announces xfilter Stereo EQ 500 Series Module
German concern, elysia, has announced that they’ve ported their xfilter stereo EQ to the Series 500 format. As usual, they took considerable effort in the aesthetic design and audio path which consists of 100% Class-A circuitry, gold-plated PCBs, a rugged 4mm aluminium front panel and solid aluminium knobs. Aimed at engineers looking to enhance their processing of stereo stems, as well as creative sound shaping, mix bus duties, and even mastering, the xfilter 500 is elysia’s newest product for boutique audio shaping.
The xfilter 500 is all about quality and flexibility. It offers high- and low-shelf bands, both of which can be switched into high- and low-cut filters with resonance – a special feature culled from eylsia’s flagship equalizer, the museq. The xfilter 500 also provides two mid-peak filters with switchable (wide or narrow) Q factor. In addition to its four flexible active bands, the xfilter 500 features a unique switchable fixed LC filter for polishing the high frequency range. This passive filter mainly consists of a capacitor and a coil per channel that produce a slight resonance peak around 12kHz, focusing the saturation-like storage effect of the coil on the area around the peak without pushing the complete high frequency spectrum too much. By linking its two channels, the xfilter eliminates the tedious task of matching the settings for the left and right channels during time-wasting knob-twiddling sessions. All stepped potentiometers ensure fast and precise recall of earlier settings.
According to elysia co-founder Dominik Klassen, the tricky technical demands resulting from the design of a linked stereo EQ have been handled with great care. Every single dual and quad layer pot elysia’s purchases is measured with custom computer routines, and only the good ones go into production. A special series of low tolerance film capacitors aims at additional precision, all for the sake of a precise stereo image.
Elysia’s xfilter 500 is available now for $1,049 / €649.
