Yes, the 828 does have a very good sounding EQ section; the secret is that it is very simple. It is ‘class A’ circuitry so any distortion is 2nd order, which is musically good and adds to the smoothness and musicality of a system. And those output limiters are legendary…. The funny story about that design is that it originally came from a ‘Mullard book of transistor circuits’ from about 1958. I found the circuit there and in its original form it was just a toy, but after just a little ‘tweeking’ it turned into a superb limiter…. but you have to be careful with it, it is easily possible to overload it and not realise. 