Sound Matter are a pretty new company out of Maryland, USA, run by producer Gabe Karlick, and the STS is their first piece so far
The STS is a hi and low shelf equaliser unit with a frequency tilt feature. Now frequency tilt wasn’t really something we were aware of until a few years ago, so let’s take a quick look at this concept.
Tilt is a really interesting EQ method which kinda does what it says. Say you adjust the tilt with a specific centre frequency in mind to increase the top end in a recording, it will equally reduce the low end simultaneously, and if you boost the low end it’ll drop the high end equally.
It’s a nice smooth way to make subtle tone adjustments in a pretty phase-linear way. As far as we know the concept was originally used in 70s hifi preamps like the Quad 34, and languished in the world of audiophiles until 30 something years later when Paul Wolff of Tonelux resurrected the idea and put it on studio equipment.
Sound Matter has made this concept the centrepiece of the STS equaliser, which we are going to assume is called the STS because it’s a shelf, tilt, and a shelf.
And how does it sound? It sounds great – it’s a lovely unit with only a few options, making it perfect for broad-stroke sound shaping. It’s full of Panasonic and WIMA capacitors, the pots are proper quality ones (which are getting rarer in audio equipment we review these days), and we reckon the knobs themselves are custom made too.
We’re also loving the handles at top and bottom to finally make it easier to remove 500 series units from the enclosure, and they also protect the unit too. Overall a really good design!
So, how do the frequency bands sit? Up top we’ve got our high shelf with selectable frequencies of 1k, 2.5k and 5k, with up to 10dB boost or cut, and a switch to take it in or out, with an LED.
Below this we’ve got our tilt, with a centre frequency selectable from 750 Hz or 2.5K. The tilt fade also has a nice big detent in the middle of the track, just like the pots do too.
And down the bottom we’ve got our low shelf with selectable frequencies of 100, 500, and 750Hz, again with 10Db boost or cut, and a switch to put it in or out. You’ll notice when using it that the frequencies interact with each other too, so you can boost and cut simultaneously and get some interesting frequency curves happening.
We are going a mono kick and snare as well as some bass and a vocal through the STS so you can hear what this thing can do
And there we have it, the Sound Matter STS EQ, two shelves and a tilt on a high quality 500 series unit. If you’re not familiar with tilt EQ it can sometimes be the perfect setting for adjusting your source to perfection.
It’s also really nice to use a quality built piece – this thing is STRONG and SOLID. In a world where we have started to notice a lot of manufacturers cut corners on pots, knobs and build quality, it’s fantastic to have a piece on the market that we reckon we could throw down the stairs and it’ll still function completely fine.
The STS retails for $249 US, comes with a 1 year warranty, and is available directly from the company here.
Check out some of our other reviews here.
