Equilizer and iHP-120

[gsawdy]

A question has come up when using the iRiver iHP120/140.  These units have a digital output and many use this to send a SPDIF signal to an external DAC and amp.  It appears that the equilizer works on this digital ouput.  I would have thought the equilizer was analog but this suggests to me that it works in the digital domain.  Is this correct?   Can anyone explain how it all works?   BTW I'm not a techi so please keep it simple.

TIA,  George

[saratoga]

I would have thought the equilizer was analog

Digital.  Analog EQs are large, expensive and of lower quality.  They're generally not used on devices that already have digital data in them (and actually not used much at all anymore at least for audio frequency).

 Can anyone explain how it all works?   BTW I'm not a techi so please keep it simple.

Check the manual.  Or if you mean how an EQ works, thats going to involve some math. 

[gsawdy]

I would have thought the equilizer was analog

Digital.  Analog EQs are large, expensive and of lower quality.  They're generally not used on devices that already have digital data in them (and actually not used much at all anymore at least for audio frequency).
 

Thank you , Saratoga.   I did read the manual and did a search,  but still was uncertain.  I was afraid that someone would say that the digital was converted to analog, equalizes and the  converted back to digital.   But you are right that would take a lot of hardware.  VBG

Thank you again,  George

[Multiplex]

The iriver H100 and H300 also have tone controls (Bass and Treble) that are in the codec hardware but these only effect the analogue outputs.