[Otto]

Hi mark, and welcome to the Shack!

Yeah, the BFD device is rather advertised as a "feedback destroyer," but that functionality is really just a set of adaptive parametric filters. It's easy to disable the feedback destroyer part of each filter -- it's just a button push.

There's not really that much set up with the BFD if you don't want there to be. The only necessity to connect the BFD to the PC is for MIDI communication of the filter settings, and that is absolutely not necessary.

The BFD actually does NOT have any digital I/O; it's strictly an analog I/O device, although it does perform its filtering in the digital domain.

I agree that, at first glance, the BFD isn't necessarily as intiuitive as an equalizer with sliders and knobs for each filter. Those are rather easy to see exactly what's going on (although, for a parametric EQ, you'd still have a lot going on). Yes, it is necessary to scroll through each button's usage in order to enter the proper parameters, but it comes rather quickly once you get going (assuming you know what parametric values you wish to enter). So many devices have buttons that are assigned multiple usages. Think of a modern car stereo where you have to hold a button for five seconds for it to do something different, or where you hit a button to turn on selections, a wheel to scroll through the selections and then a button to choose the selection. Some people would prefer the good ol' analog dial car radio from the 1960's. And grandpa used to turn the TV to black and white whenever he came over. Nothing wrong with that!

Now if, by chance, any of the EQs that you've used in the past are simple graphic EQs, then they just won't work. You absolutely need adjustable bandwidth (Q) and assignable center frequencies for this to work with a sub.

The BFD is also easily found for well under $100, so it's affordable by most home enthusiasts.

Now, I will agree that there is some setup involved to get REW working. The BFD is totally independent of REW, so that added complexity isn't really necessary, but they work so nicely together. REW is the room measurement tool, of course. Even if you're going to be using some other type of EQ (parametric or not), you'll want to know your room's frequency response in order to properly address it. So, you'd need REW either way, and it's the more challenging thing to get going.

I think that's most of it! Try one out; they work very well...