Dangerous Music has released the BAX500, a single-slot 500-series EQ ‘that brings the legendary, ultra-musical sound of the acclaimed BAX EQ into a compact modular format’.
Built for tracking, mixing and mastering, BAX500 pairs broad shelving EQ with high-cut and low-cut filters to control the frequency extremes that quietly steal headroom and cloud translation.
BAX500 reckons to reimagine the Baxandall EQ from a mastering engineer’s perspective. Broad shelves shape several octaves at once, allowing small adjustments to unlock depth, sheen and weight across a mix. Subtle moves bring elements into balance in a way that feels cohesive and musical, helping the sound come together without calling attention to the process. BAX500 is designed for making musical decisions – revealing what’s already there rather than imposing a new character.
High-cut and low-cut filters with smooth, natural slopes allow frequency extremes to be cleaned up early in the signal path. Removing infrasonic rumble and ultrasonic content helps preserve headroom, maintain transient clarity, and improve translation, while keeping the sound open, controlled and punchy.
BAX500 follows the same core design principles as Dangerous Music’s flagship hardware. The signal path is DC-coupled up to the low-cut filter and features a relay-controlled hard-wired bypass that physically removes the circuit from the signal path for true A/B comparisons. Mastering-grade custom components are selected for both performance and sound.
Key specifications
- Mono 500-series equaliser module (single-slot).
- EQ design based on the Baxandall high- and low-shelving topology.
- Broad, musical shelving EQ shaping multiple octaves.
- ±5dB boost and cut range on high and low shelves.
- High-cut and low-cut filters for controlling frequency extremes.
- 12dB/octave filter slopes.
- Relay-controlled hard-wired bypass for full circuit and filter sections.
- DC-coupled signal path up to the low-cut filter.
- Mastering-grade custom components throughout.
‘The BAX EQ has a pure fidelity – you won’t realise it’s on until it’s bypassed and you miss it,’ says Dangerous Music President, Marek Stycos. ‘With tenacious ingenuity we were able to faithfully pack all of the original circuitry and sonics into the smaller form factor of the BAX500.’
The Dangerous Music BAX500 begins shipping January 2026. Price: $1,299 USD