Quote Originally Posted by okiemax
How would you expain why a flat response is good?
The ideal situation is get the sound from the musicians in the studio to come out of your speakers with the same frequency information that they recorded their material at. Thus, at all stages of the signal going from an instrument right up to your speaker, there is usually a need to equalize the signal due to a variety of technical reasons. I know that recording engineers use equalization when burning a master CD. And usually, home owners would likely need to equalize again to take into account their equipment and room acoustics. The goal is to have the band sound exactly the same in your room as they did if you were sitting in the studio.


Quote Originally Posted by okiemax
What does it mean if a person doesn't like a flat response?
The frequency response a person likes is a matter of taste. The band and the recording engineers decide what is right for them and then they record it. People might strive to duplicate that using an equalizer. If not, then they adjust the spectrum according to their tastes.

So I see two aspects that relate to home equalization. First, a person may want to compensate for room or equipment defiencies to flatten the frequency response. Second, a person may have particular tastes like heavy on the bass and wish to use their equalizer for this purpose.

Personal tastes are easy to fool around with. The hard part would be to get a flat response in any given room. The neat thing about that though is if you listen to a track in somebody's room and then go to somebody else with different equipment and a different room, it should sound the same (well within reason, of course).

I guess it could be comparable to singing in key. Anybody can sing the national anthem by themselves in any key they want but if you sing a duet, you must be in the same key, preferably the key the song was written in.