CD horn EQ with deq2496

[Chris Snyder]

Hey all, I was hoping you could give me some advice regarding doing constant directivity EQ digitally.

My system at the moment is a pair of cornwalls with woofers on a 50w SS amp with signal crossed ~700hz. Everything above that is fed into my tube amp and to the midrange/tweeter. The mids are mounted on EV HR9040's, which are CD horns. Currently using the cornwall tweeter.

I've been wanting to add EQ to my system, and also prepare to put high frequency drivers on the CD horns and eliminate the tweeters for a two-way. The problem of course is that without narrowing directivity, the drivers will roll off at approximately 6 db/octave starting at 3khz on the EV horns.

I'd like to correct for this digitally if possible, as all my sources are digital anyway. Problem with this is that it means padding down everything but the highs to make up the 0db @ 3khz, -6db @ 6khz, -12db @12khz, etc. To do this to a 16 bit source means probably losing 4 bits of resolution at all the other frequencies, which would not be acceptable to me.

Is it possible to convert the 16bit to 24 bit by bit shifting upwards.. and then use the 0/-24db range of the deq2496 to EQ? Any other ideas?

Thanks
Chris