A very good value for a clean digital EQ is the Acon Digital Equalize plugin.  It goes on sale regularly for well under $100.
 
Cheers,
Eddie
 

I bought the Waves H-EQ. It's very much like the bundled Quad Curve but has more options. I'm down grading to Pro at the end of the year so I bought this EQ specifically to replace the Quad Curve. It was on sale for $49.

ampfixer
I bought the Waves H-EQ. It's very much like the bundled Quad Curve but has more options. I'm down grading to Pro at the end of the year so I bought this EQ specifically to replace the Quad Curve. It was on sale for $49.

but the Waves plugins require either iLok or Pace (?) licensing manager.  I have a small handful of Waves plugins that I got on a no brainer deal.  but I've lost my USB drive that the license manager for it was on, so I've never reactivated them.  I have found the prochannel EQ to be quite sufficient for my use.  I have never heard any artifacts from it myself.

my guess is,
there are no artifacts,
that this is noise coming from some other source.
 
otherwise,
there would be countless posts about 'artifacts in stock sonar vst's',
and there just aren't any.
 
unless alanh has the ULTIMATE EARS
 
which is possible....

If the quad curve had mid/side it would be use more often here. I still use it on individual tracks, but mid/side would be a great update one of these months.

I seriously doubt the ProChannel equalizers exhibit any audible artifacts, Allan. If you're hearing something out of the ordinary, I'd suggest investigating that before spending money on EQs. Try the Sonitus EQ. No spectrum graph, but it's a good EQ.
 
If you're determined to get a different equalizer, FabFilter Pro-Q2 is about the best there is, IMO. Pricey, but very, very good.

Beagle
 
but the Waves plugins require either iLok or Pace (?) licensing manager.

No they don't, not any more, and not for quite a while.

Actually, Waves just severed their relationship with Pace but invented their own, equally fragile, copy protection scheme. Licensing remains Waves' Achilles' heel.

Actually, It has been over 12 months, which is a little more than 'Just severed' to me, ymmv
Don't have an issue with the Waves Licensing, never have

While my iLok manager occasionally decides not to load on startup...frustrating...I've never had problem one with WAVES license manager. YMMV.