I was just wondering how many people use the EQ function in their portable audio hardware/car decks/hi-fi systems/computer hardware when listening to music. A purist wouldn't boost or lower anything, would they?

When I used to just using stock buds, I used EQ a lot. I stopped using EQ after getting good headphones.

Anyway, if you compare all audio devices without EQ/with flat EQ, you might find each devices have their own sound characteristics. In a sense, what is produced by the flat EQ might not truly represent the original 100%. In addition, speakers/headphones have their own characteristics as well. So, it will be hard to exactly know what the original music may sound like, unless you are the artist/producer listening to the music during recording. Most purists will depend on/trust that their chosen equipments is as neutral as possible in producing sound.

Personally, I couldn't care less for those who conciously decide to listen to music on a flat eq spectrum. Everyone has different pairs of ears, different feelings on how audio should sound to them, and different budgets.

That being said, I listen to music without any EQ on my home system, not because that is how someone intended it so sound, but because the majority of music sounds quite good and natural to me.

In my car, on the other hand, I EQ quite a bit.

On my portable player, I add a small amount of treble and some bass to get a listening environment in my HD280pro's that pleases me.

Just keeping tone or EQ settings at flat is not going to give you the same sound as what was recorded as electronics and speakers add their own characteristics. So, there is nothing wrong in using the EQ for making some subtle changes to the sound. However, going overboard (raising the 30Hz or the 18kHz EQ values to +10dB) is not a great idea .

My electronics are not all that great and the bass I get is thin. So, I compensate for the poor bass by tweaking the lower band a bit with the EQ. That said, the only person who can decide is the person using certain components for listening.

audiomars

i'm using the creative x-fi's crystalizer function, set to 0%.
the difference is marginal but sounds very pleasing to my ears.

-andy-

Never when using headphones, but for my room speakers I have to reduce the bass and up treble a little because I live in a 400 year old wooden house that has weird accoustics.
I do that with my amp though, no software EQ.

I always use the EQ function both at my pc and portable.

Obviously there are differences between the Rock Preset in Winamp and my portable, but I prefer to use the preset than to listen to music without the EQ enabled.

On my stereo though, I have all sound adjustments off 'cause I feel they "ruin" the sound. I don't know, it's weird.

Congratulations to the title, sounds great!

On the home HiFi I don't use EQ.
On my Nomad JB 3 I have to crank up 12000Hz
to the max to get the impression of normal sound.

I don't use any EQ when listening with my headphones (Behringer HPS3000). When I'm listening with my speakers (SONY SS-RX88), I turn on the Dynamic Bass FeedBack to 'normal' (there's also 'high' setting). When I'm listening in my car, I use the XDSS function on my LG TCH-M550R.

I'm using a "mild" EQ on my PC Speaker System to counteract room-acoustics and some speaker issues. Thus, because i want a flat response, i'm using an EQ.

My thoughts are: if the mastering engineer has his job properly then the mix should be at its best on as many listening devices as possible, so it needs no EQ. If he hasn't, then something as coarse as a 3, 5, whatever band EQ isn't going to help much!

Surely everyone has different pairs of ears, but natural sounds are never EQed to taste, so we should be more used to listening to the same thing as everyone else filtered through our ears than trying to compensate for our ears!

Well, it's the mastering engineers job but it's also impossible to achieve.
Not only the ears are different, the gear and the room accoustics are even more different. That's why mixing/mastering engineers are usually listening to their mixes at as many systems as possible.

I don't see anything wrong in eq-ing if it helps to make up the flaws of the system.
I do use a bit of eq in the car for some kinds of music, some eq-ing when listening to the tiny desktop speakers and usually none if listening with headphones.

i encode my lossless files to lossy files with added EQ for my ipod. my headphones are decent, but they don't have the same bass as my PC speakers, so i turn up the bass in the EQ. (the ipod's bass boost isn't that great)

Thanks for the replies gang!

I've just been experimenting lately. I did my first ABX a couple of nights ago, and I thought it best if I was working with as "pure" of a sound as possible, so I killed my software EQ (Creative) and brought the Windows treble and bass settings to 50%. Granted, I was ABX'ing with headphones (Sony MDRXD300).

Anyway, I took an audio engineering course at a local studio awhile back, and the engineer mentioned that so many people EQ everything and tend to scoop the mids because they tend to sound "dirty." Since then, I've sort of been a bit more sensitive to that sort of thing. I started with my car deck, and I noticed I could crank the music up without worrying about the bass overpowering everything else. I wasn't over-EQ'ing the lower frequencies or anything, it just sounded more "even".

I guess I just need to mess around a bit more with every set up. And yeah, it would probably depend on if I were living in a 400 year-old wooden house with "weird acoustics". ( - sony666)

It just vexes me when I go to an electronics store for a simple 2.0 speaker set up, and all I can find are 2.1 systems that ONLY have a bass control. Honestly, it's like everyone's (mainstream) focused on making everything sound like a car. Bass-overkill. I mean, sure, it covers up a crappy speaker-system's incapacity to reproduce good treble and mid-range, but SOME of us live in apartments.

That's just my opinion, though.

The car thing is part of it, but so are people's perceptions of what "good" speakers sound like. People going out to buy computers speakers probably currently have a set of very cheap 2" paper cone based plastic boxes (you know the ones) that barely respond below 200Hz. Listening to a set with a subwoofer, they hear bass and get the idea that more is better.

The bass heaviness of most computer speakers sets is a marketing gimick as much as anything else. Also, for some sorts of movies I like my Z560's set rather bass heavy - lots of impact for explosions and the like. For music, I use a different set of speakers.

In response to the original thread topic: I didn't used to use an EQ, but I moved recently and found that the response of my new listening room (my study) has an irritating resonance, which I take out with a gentle EQ. I don't know where people got the idea that no EQ is better - It might be so if you have a really poor EQ, but in the real world you are never going to find a set of speakers and listening room with flat response. One way to get closer to that goal is EQ.

Great topic.

I use a Behrginer DEQ2496 digital equalizer with my headphone setup. My goal is to compensate for response anomalies in my headphones to get a sound that I imagine is a pretty good average tonal balance over most recordings, sort of an average recording engineer's idea of a flat response. I run it through a Berhinger mixer with treble, bass and mid tone controls, where I can compensate quickly for any gross tone imbalances of a recording. My headphone listening is my most critical and intense (and relaxing!) listening.

I also always use some EQ on my home stereos and my portables. I just haven't found speakers or headphones that I can't improve dramtically (for my taste) with some mild EQ. I feel I've learned a lot about the audio spectrum by playing with this stuff too -- it's a fun part of the hobby.

As far as hearing what a recording is meant to sound like, through what speakers? In what room? At what volume? With what headphones? Many recording microphones are colored, most engineers use a good dose of EQ in the recording process, and much of today's music includes electronically synthesized sounds that have no "true" sound. There is no standardization in recording procedures and the variables are mind-numbing. Good luck getting to hear the sound as the recording engineer "intended" it.

Ive never found an EQ preset for foobar that improves the sound. It either makes it muffled or just sound odd.

But I would like a good one...

Wouldn't it depend on how you are listening to the music? eg. Listening through high quality sound setup and good speakers would sound quite different to listening through notebook speakers.

I'm interested in finding a good EQ setting to listen to music through my notebook speakers - its a Dell 630m and the speakers are surprisingly good, though it tends to favour treble. A good EQ setting would definitely improve the sound, but I am yet to find the perfect one.

I don't EQ, because I've yet to find a need for it myself. I don't personally like how most music sounds after EQing compared to flat. I listen mostly on headphones but also leave it flat for my speakers as well.

Whatever makes you happy is what you should go with though

I don't use a software eq. But I do use the bass control on my receiver, I believe its centered at 50hz. When I was younger I used to put it up 6 or 8db but now that I'm older I don't like the boomy sound so I put it at -2 or -3db. Weird thing is, bass adjusts the sub preout too which I rather it didnt or I might put it even lower.. I do think most average HT setups in average rooms probably need an eq to get rid of the boomy sound. Isn't an 'ideal' listening room supposedly 300 square ft or more. My speakers sounds best to me about 16 inches away from the back walls and 7ft between them, which really isnt possible as that somewhat blocks doorways. So I have to eq

Personally, I EQ all my songs. If you ever see my EQ setup, I guess you'll go, "Hey, that's a low-pass filter. WTF?" Yes, I have acute over-sensitivity of HF. Cymbal crashes, if not EQ-ed, will get me a guaranteed headache after 5-10 minutes.

Which is why I go clubbing with earplugs in my ears foam-kind of earplugs, which act as a crude LPF.

That said, we use EQ at my church to compensate for room acoustics. That one EQ is set by a professional installer, then an acrylic plate is screwed in place to prevent others from ever messing with that. To compensate for low-quality recordings/equipment/gremlins/etc, another EQ is placed in series just before the signal enters the amps.

And the latter EQ, most of the time, get set to a smiley face by stupid youths who know zilch about audio...

I EQ only what I play from my computer : I give a bass and treble boost -- +1-3 db in bass (300Hz--), +3-5 in treble (12000Hz++) and -1-2 db in midrange (600-4000Hz). Equalization is done through foobar2000.