Description
The Missing Link
The Elysia xfilter 500 is a true linked stereo EQ in the 500 series format. It gives you the expensive sound of an all-class-A equalizer in a surprisingly affordable package, with a precise stereo image based on computer-selected, stepped potentiometers and low tolerance film capacitors.
With its exceptionally open sound, straight transient projection, and solid punch, the xfilter 500 is the perfect match for your xpressor 500 – or any other piece of outboard gear!
5 reasons why you should use the xfilter 500
even there are many more!
- Build Quality
The xfilter, just like all our products, is designed, engineered, and handcrafted in Germany.
- Class-A Topology
Consequently represents the art of discrete signal processing.
- True Stereo Link
As one of the few exceptions in the market, the xfilter 500 processes both of its channels with just one set of controllers – a true stereo-linked EQ.
- Computer-Selected Potentiometers
Every single dual and quad layer pot we buy is measured with custom computer routines, and only the lowest tolerance ones go into production.
- Low Tolerance Capacitors
The special series of film caps used for the xfilter performs twice as good as the industry standard in terms of component tolerance.
Build Quality
The xfilter 500 is all about details.
Every single of its many aspects – sound, features, circuitry, components, design, materials, manufacturing – has been thought over and over until there was just nothing left to improve. Basically, every single part of our fine products is custom, and most of these are made according to our own designs and specs.
Only the best components the market has to offer are good enough for the xfilter 500, and it shows. Each of our products is manually built to order and tested by ourselves, here at our headquarters in Germany.
Our product benefits sum up in an audio quality that is beyond all doubt. Even when extreme settings are used, the sound always stays clean and powerful.
Active Meets Passive
The xfilter 500 is absolutely serious about flexibility. It offers high and low shelf bands which can be switched into high and low cut filters with resonance, two mid-peak filters with wide and narrow Q, plus additional passive LC stages with shielded coils for a glorious top end.
True Stereo Operation
Using an analog EQ on a stereo buss can be quite tricky, as only very few units offer the possibility to link their two mono channels for true stereo processing.
As a result, the user needs to fiddle around with many knobs in order to cope with the tedious task of matching the settings for both channels as well as possible. The problem gets only worse when the controllers do not have any steps for reference.
But while there are so many compressors in the market that can be linked for stereo operation, why are there almost no EQs which can do this, too? One of the main answers is component tolerances. Obviously, you want the two linked channels to behave exactly the same, but the natural tolerances that especially potentiometers and capacitors have to counteract this ideal characteristic.
To make a long story short: The xfilter 500 solves this problem by using computer-selected dual and quad layer pots as well as special low tolerance caps.
Computer-Selected Potentiometers
In a linked stereo EQ, the potentiometers need a lot of layers. The pots for setting the mixers (gain) have two layers each, while the pots for setting the frequencies even have a total of four layers each!
The problem occurs that every single layer has its own component tolerance, and while layer A could be at the absolute minimum of the allowed tolerance, layer B could be at the absolute maximum. As a result, the filter stages of the left and right channels would not behave the same.
To solve this, every single potentiometer in the xfilter 500 is measured and selected with an Audio Precision rig and computer routines written exactly for this task. As a result, only 65% of the dual layer pots and only 50% of the quad pots we buy go into production – the rest is put aside.
It’s a true custom shop option we are proud to offer with every xfilter 500 free of any up-charges.
