The naysayers kinda crack me up. I mean ALL of the music you listen to and love is EQ’d (also there is no Easter Bunny).
As long as you can’t hear the difference in bypass mode then by all means EQ to your hearts content.
Regards,
barts
Go get out your pitchforks, I’ve done a sacrilegious thing. . .
. . . I’ve added an EQ!
A Loki Max to be exact - and so far, I love it!
I believe in the purist approach for the most part, and I have a main system that that’s all about, but this system, this is my fun house system, but my room acoustics are not great in my living room. But that doesn’t mean I want crap sound in it either. The wife won’t let me treat the room, but frankly, that isn’t even the main reason I did it.
The system is basically Klipsch Forte III’s, Balanced Audio VX 3ix pre-amp, ARC balanced V35 tube amp, Bifrost 2 DAC getting sound from a Marantz ND8006 streamer. I put the EQ between the DAC and the preamp.
It’s dead quiet, and I can’t discern the difference in bypass mode either.
I figured it’s was a lot easier, and cheaper, to add this one component and get the exact sound I want versus going through a bunch of cables or changing out other equipment.
Soundstage is great, and there doesn’t paper to be any aberrations, but keep in mind this isn’t the most reveling system, another reason I wasn’t too worried about adding an EQ.
All in all, a good investment and make my music more enjoyable!
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Test of transparency is between no Loki in system vs Loki. Assuming no absolute transparency, I can see the tradeoffs being in Loki's favor. As with @ghdprentice I have no need, have voiced system to sound best with widest variety of recordings. I'd only find system EQ valuable if changing settings by individual recording. |
Reading this thread, it seems to me that it is the equalizers who are defensive, whereas the anti-equalizers are either trying to be funny (which is OK in my book but could be provocative to an equalizer) or asking reasonable questions or making reasonable points. My opinion is, if it sounds better to you, do it, but let's not pretend equalizers are completely and utterly transparent. And beware of putting stress on your amplifiers or speakers when you are trying to correct a major dip in the in-room response, particularly in the bass end of the spectrum. There is no free lunch. |
Lewm, I couldn’t agree more, but it’s the degree of distortion that is really relevant in broadest sense. If you can’t hear it . . . Well. Just because something adds some level of distortion doesn’t make it bad - tubes anyone. (BTW almost all my equipment had tubes). Technically EVERYTHING makes a difference, the room being a major contributor, so whether you are buying equipment without EQ’s or with it ultimately the signal passes through thousands of capacitor, resistors, tubes (in some cases), and all the small lengths of wire interconnecting that stuff, the end result is all that matters. Many paths to get there, very few definitively wrong answers, because in the end it’s ALL subjective.
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