To EQ or not to EQ - That is the question!

[mtrycraft]

No offense N. Abstentia, but I just have never understood the whole "you should never touch your tone controls and should be hung, drawn and made to listen to polka if you use an EQ" point of view.

I could subscribe to the whole idea if every recording ever made was done in exactly the same recording studio using exactly the same equipment under exactly the same conditions, etc. etc. - but that's simply just not the case.

If you ever get the chance to witness the recording process you'll see that from the moment the first guitar string is plucked to the moment it's placed on the final master there are tonal adjusments via EQ being done throughout the entire process.

I've been using an AudioControl Ten Series III EQ for years with every amp/speaker combination I've ever had. The trick, in my opinon, is not to over do it - I never tweak more than 4-6db and have always been able to compensate for some of the obvious faults in the original recordings.

Ahhh - I hear you already out there, "faults in the original recordings??? but that's the way the record was MEANT to be heard" How do I know what it originally sounded like unless I've got the exact equipment and monitors that were present in the original recording and mixing studio? I can't - no one can.

Everyone just needs to face the fact that there's no way to exactly duplicate what the originators of the music were intending with a particular mix. Furthermore, everyone also needs to realize that no two amp/speaker combinations are ever going to sound alike and that even if you take the same amp/speaker combinations and place them in two different rooms they're likely to sound dramatically different.

My only point is that, in my opinion, a **GOOD** EQ that doesn't introduce any additional noise (like an AudioControl - which, btw, is going to set you back several hundred dollars) is an essential part of any setup. Tone controls, I will grant you, are fairly useless as they adjust broad swaths of the sound spectrum and unavoidably end up adjusting elements that you don't want tinkered with.

If you know what you're doing and are fairly reserved with your adjustments a high quality EQ can be an invaluable piece of equipment.

Let the flames begin!!!!

You are right. Nothing wrong with using EQ. You may even consider the Audio Control 1/3 octave EQ for finer control.
One should sit in some recording sessions or speaker setups in such a place. A whole lot of EQing is going on.

One should see what their speaker response looks like before speaking that a good speaker doesn't need EQ. WRONG

[skeptic]

I don't know if they still do it but they used to come by recording studio's once a week with calibrated mikes and all of the other equipment necessary to tweak the equalization of the monitor speakers to be sure that they were still ruler flat.

[N. Abstentia]

Best feature I've ever seen on a preamp is the TONE CONTROL BYPASS. Get that crap out of there, just adds more noise to the signal chain!

If you rely on an EQ to make your system sound right, what do you do in the case of a digital signal such as from a DVD? Do they make EQ's with digital inputs?

What about for DVD-Audio or SACD? Would you just go buy 3 stereo EQ's?

[RGA]

Well the best thing about an advanced EQ is that you don't really need a speaker that measures flat - since in most rooms that flat speaker will look like a sine wave anyway. If speaker A has a 5db dip from 2-6khz you can boost those to 0db with an EQ and make any speaker in any room measure flat - sounding good is something else.

Really though the point of a stereo is to make you happy - if an EQ will make you happier and give you more enjoyment or bass treble knobs etc then go for it. It is not my job nor is it right for me to tell you what should make you happy. Though you have large Ego's on both sides who will tell you what is RIGHT - the one that makes you enjoy listening to your bleeding music collection is the choice that's right. Simple - case closed.

[skeptic]

There's a lot more to the frequency response of a loudspeaker than the on axis anechoic measurement. The proof this that a lot of speakers which measure flat don't sound flat and don't even sound like each other. Total power radiated, room acoustics, and speaker placement are big factors in how a speaker will sound in a given system. Equalization gives you at least one powerful means to adapt the system to the environment. Without it, you hook it up, turn it on, and that's it, good bad or otherwise.

As for having a different equalizer for each input, I think that's a great idea and have toyed with it myself for a while. The ability to null out any minor spectral deviations from neutrality from each component individually makes a lot of sense considering how little equalizers cost today. An alternative is a digital equalizer with a series of memories, one for each input.

[mtrycraft]

Best feature I've ever seen on a preamp is the TONE CONTROL BYPASS. Get that crap out of there, just adds more noise to the signal chain!

If you rely on an EQ to make your system sound right, what do you do in the case of a digital signal such as from a DVD? Do they make EQ's with digital inputs?

What about for DVD-Audio or SACD? Would you just go buy 3 stereo EQ's?

Yep, if you have a multi channel setup and want to do it right, you have an EQ in each channel.

Yep, there are digital EQ's so I am told.

[Peter_Klim]

Best feature I've ever seen on a preamp is the TONE CONTROL BYPASS. Get that crap out of there, just adds more noise to the signal chain!

If you rely on an EQ to make your system sound right, what do you do in the case of a digital signal such as from a DVD? Do they make EQ's with digital inputs?

What about for DVD-Audio or SACD? Would you just go buy 3 stereo EQ's?

Don't you think that a better feature on a pre-amp would be to not even have a TONE CONTROL (which would eliminate your pre's wasteful feature called the TONE CONTROL BYPASS)? Get that crap pre outta your system!! LOL!!

jk

[skeptic]

Why not do away with all of the other controls as well. After all the fewer controls we have, the fewer options and decisions we will have to make. Why not throw away the balance control? What do we need it for? Not only should your speakers be flat, they should be identical to within +/- 0.1 db. While we're at it, chuck the volume control as well? There should be only one correct loudness for music, the loudness of live music. Mabye an internal pot that you set once and that's it. How about the function switch? One input, that's all. Choose your best playback medium, all others are inferior and should be ignored anyway. And finally there is that pesky on off switch. What reason could anyone ever have for turning an amplifier off? There, what an improvement. Greater economy deleting all of these useless controls, fewer circuit elements, and therefore according to this minimalist philosophy, the best possible performance. Now all that's left is to double the price.

[Peter_Klim]

Why not do away with all of the other controls as well. After all the fewer controls we have, the fewer options and decisions we will have to make. Why not throw away the balance control? What do we need it for? Not only should your speakers be flat, they should be identical to within +/- 0.1 db. While we're at it, chuck the volume control as well? There should be only one correct loudness for music, the loudness of live music. Mabye an internal pot that you set once and that's it. How about the function switch? One input, that's all. Choose your best playback medium, all others are inferior and should be ignored anyway. And finally there is that pesky on off switch. What reason could anyone ever have for turning an amplifier off? There, what an improvement. Greater economy deleting all of these useless controls, fewer circuit elements, and therefore according to this minimalist philosophy, the best possible performance. Now all that's left is to double the price.

Dude, lighten up. "jk" mean "just kidding". I was just kidding around.

But to a point, I was serious as to wondering why someone who is so against tone controls would buy a pre with tone controls in the first place (I am sure he had valid reasons). So I was being sarcastic by replying to him to get rid of his own "crap".

Me, I never use the basic bass/treble controls. But usually I use EQs in car audio, but usually I don't in 2 Ch nor HT.

[skeptic]

"So I was being sarcastic "

So was I.