Equalizer no more?

[Woochifer]

I have no problems if one wants to use and EQ or not so I'll say this at the outset.

Some of the reasons why not to use them are you paying big money for an amplifier which has top grade outpouts only to run it into a cheap signal distorting box? Many high priced and some very good manufacters(not necessarily the same thing) believe in removing as many circuits from the signal path as possible -- so adding an EQ which has a myriad of switches goes directly against the goal. The amplifier makers are assuming that you are buying very good speakers and not something that needs to have a bass knob to enhance the bass the speaker should be but does not provide on its own -- the EQ was to tailor bad speakers to make them sound half decent -- if you look at the speakers pioneer was selling with their EQ it made lotsa sense.

Unfortunately, the role of the equalizer got perverted into a glorified tone control. Until the last few years and the current rennaissance with digital parametric equalization, the actual role of the equalizer (correcting for gross anomalies in the speaker response curve and with the room acoustics) has been lost over the past couple of decades. A good equalizer will add minimal distortions and noise into the signal path, but make tremendous improvements by evening out the extremities that the room and/or speakers can create.

To be able to "HEAR" the effect of a switch on your music all you need to do is play a receiver that has a direct bypass switch (most do) and then set everything to flat 2 channel stereo. Then push the direct button which bypasses all these modes -- you will hear a difference - and that's just one switch. many integrated amps such as my Arcam Delta 290 had a direct switch which bypassed the bass treble knobs. Setting the bass and treble to middle and pushing direct and it was rather a big difference.

That's simply because the tone controls and other signal altering circuitry on analog amplifiers in their "zero" states more often than not were not flat. The bypass switch creates an audible change because the zero positions on the tone controls and other switches were never a true zero to begin with.

I think when you really find something you like (which is not necessarily stuff magazines endlessly endorse from paid manufacturers) you will not find tione controls of any kind to be at all necessary.

Subject of course to room and listening conditions, and preferences.