i couldn't agree more with the above. I used an eq for a while when I was limited to small Mission speakers. It gave me the freqs I wanted. But in the slightest way, it made the (fumbling for words) *saturation seem less. At worst it was as if I went from CD to tuner, at best alot less dramatically, still doing the same *watering down.
There are better, but this was with a $700 Yahama eq. As the others have illuded, and was true in mine, something is missing in the electronics if that much other is needed. In my case, it was the speakers, and those tapes later had me employing the eq on a much better system. But sometimes you just can't make it sound better.