Re: life after the DEQ 2496
My first choice would be a used BSS Varicurve FDS-926. 2RU, 2ch, 6 bands of analog parametric per channel, linkable channels, MIDI expandable with other varicurve components but not as a master, no A/D D/A conversion.
Second choice would be a Ashly Protea 4.24G, 2RU 4ch, 28-band graphic + comp + delay per channel, 24-bit A/D D/A, linkable channels, MIDI expandable and can act as the control interface for other "blank panel" 4.24 components.