Description
Meyer Sound equipment has a big reputation in the USA where the company is currently celebrating 50 years in business. John Meyer started the company in 1967 and carved out a niche in the super-competitive live sound industry through sonically excellent products and impeccable engineering. Originally retailing for more than £3000, the CP-10 represents great value on the secondhand market
The CP-10 is two-channel, five band parametric equaliser with separate high and low-pass filters. George Massenburg is credited as being the father of the parametric equaliser – an equaliser where the boost, frequency and bandwidth of each band can be varied – and the CP-10 shares many of the attributes of the GML 8200
In use, tiny changes in EQ are easily heard with the CP-10. You find yourself making small changes and examining how sonic elements move forward & backward and change focus in the mix, rather than the usual blunt effect of lesser equalisers. If you’ve used a GML 8200, or maybe a Klein & Hummel UE400, you’ll know what I mean. If you haven’t, the CP-10 will be a revelation
The CP-10 has a modular construction with plug-in EQ & filter boards for each band. These connect to a motherboard with a separate input / output board and power supply. All components are premium quality and there appear to be no electrolytic capacitors in the signal path. EQ cards can be removed & replaced from the front panel with the EQ in service
The EQ cards, motherboard, power supply & etc are attached to a separate internal chassis and the case sides, top & bottom are hung off this. The side panels incorporate the rack ears and can be moved fore-and-aft to allow the controls to be recessed for installation or set flush for easy access
This is the only piece of outboard gear I’ve seen that uses thread-locking compound to prevent screws coming loose in transit or in use. This is very revealing of the design & execution of Meyer products
A few quotes from Gearslutz:
“It’s a surgical kit that sold new for over $3000. Built with first rate parts, Clarostat conductive plasic pots and gold molex connectors
It’s a 5 band design, parallel designed filters. Max boost/cut is 15 db at any frequency. There are 2 shelving hi and low cut bands. Those can be changed to + – 15 db shelving EQ by shorting out the trim pot inside.
I set these up for room tuning but they also make a fine general use parametric EQ” – Jim Williams
“I think they’re pretty cool. Very utilitarian. Great filters. Not much of a real sound though. If we’re thinking a long the lines of clean / transparent EQ”
“That’s a surprisingly nice sounding eq. We used to have one but sold it when we got a large desk. It’s basically a poor man’s GML.”
“I have the discontinued CP10 parametric EQ and it is fantastic…clean, flexible EQ that does its job very well without introducing artifacts or distortions”
