digital equalizers

Sounds like you need an equalizer. You can buy an excellent one for only about $350, including calibrated mic. At this price hands-on (and ears on) experience beats any opinions you may get on this site.

Behringer DEQ2496, available through www.samedaymusic.com, and many other places.

JPOD,
I was wondering much the same thing, but specifically about the pros and cons of the digital equalizers in media players (e.g., foobar, itunes) and/or other software. Does digital sound processing of this type have any detrimental effects on the data stream and , ultimately, the audio quality? I played with the digital parametric equalizer in some recording software (Ableton Lite) once and found I was able to make adjustments that really improved the sound quality for me. Incidentally, one of the adjustments was to boost the frequencies above 10K a few dB. I have been considering the Behringer Ultracurve EQ option, but am moving toward a PC based system and would like to know if equalization could be dealt with in the media player or possibly with a software plug-in.
Cheers,
Nosnhoj

Of course there are some who will put down anything digital.

You can put digital in and get it out from the DEQ2496, so that removes concern about A/D and D/A conversion. (By the way they are excellent 24 bit 96KHz devices). The equalization and other processing is accomplished by a 32 bit floating point device, so the only effects on the sound will be the ones you command.

Again I say give it a try with your own ears.

Eldartford and Nosnhoj,
Thanks for your feedback.

I did not know about the DEQ2496. It looks like a good possible solution. I like the general idea of combining a DAC and equalizer.

But in the short run I want learn more about the equalizers included with various media players--esp how they work.

For exaple I notice in Itunes that when I turn on the equalizer the volume goes down and moving the db slider of course brings it back up, but I wonder what is happening to the bit stream as I minipulate these various digital controls.

JPO

After reading this thread, I pulled my DEQ2496 out of the closet and gave it another try. 

Nope, made my system sound dead and dynamically compressed.  I was using optical in and optical out on the 2496, then the optical out into my DAC.

Back in the closed it went...