Equalizer in a Hi Fi system

It’s really not like that for me. It’s fancy bass and treble dials. I never touch 3 of the six dials. Center point switches for bells are always left the same. If I’m sitting on the couch and wanna get more bass or treble (or less), it’s nothing to get up and turn a dial or two and sit down. Totally worth it when Bryston and CO combo sound that darned sweet together. Almost everything I play sounds amazing. 

Update >.Just made an appointment with my local McIntosh dealer to audition the MQ112 tomorrow morning at 9 am and they also have 1 last one in stock and there are apts all day and Friday for demos booked to hear the MQ112. So if I do like what I see and hear I’ll be bringing it home.

@tlcocks 

Treble like bass is a moving target all because our ears change their frequency response with volume. My last processor had dynamic loudness compensation. It changed both bass and treble relative to the volume following Fletcher - Munson curves. It was very spooky. The system sounded the same regardless of volume. Before that I adjusted the volume to the best compromise for that specific recording. Some recordings sounded better at lower levels, others sounded much better turned up. I am sure everyone has had the experience of a recording that sounded somewhat dull until you turned it up then it sounded fine. The problem with the dynamic loudness compensation was that it could not accommodate to any specific recording, only volume. The end result was that I still wound up making adjustments manually. I made life easier by programming a series of target curves matching the F-M curves which I can select manually depending on both the recording and the volume.  

Many people advance the treble trying to get more "air." Some of this is audiophile euphonics. Some a response for suppressed treble in the speaker/room combination. The odd thing is I have not noticed older people advancing the treble to make up for their declining hearing. Owning Sound Labs speakers I opted for Atma-Sphere MA2s given their reputation for driving Sound Labs. Nobody has ever mentioned lack of air or depressed treble. Although the midrange and midbass are glorious I found the sound to be somewhat dark. Low and behold even with the brilliance control turned all the way up the treble started to roll off above 12 kHz and by 20 kHz was down 20 dB. This is all because of the very low impedance of the Sound Labs at higher frequencies and the highish output impedance of the MA2s at 1.5 ohms. Sound Labs will go all the way to 20 kHz flat with the right amp. Fortunately for me the DEQX has a 4 way crossover and the Sound Labs has both a low frequency and high frequency transformers which can be biamped. The current plan is to drive the high frequency transformer with a Bricasti M25. 

@tattooedtrackman Please report back to us your impressions of the Mac MQ112!  It appears to have finer intervals down low, better for room corrections, but sacrificing control up high.  I share @tlcocks concern about the leap from 3k to 10k, and that the 10k band may not have the air we seek.  I never understood why the top band is a peak, rather than a shelf.  

The PEQ-1's HF band is 15k-20k-50k switchable, and the M3D high-shelf is 2.5k-5k-10k-20k-40k switchable.  Those controls put Mac's single 10k band to shame.  The Mac has a Tilt control, so that's cool.   

An honest question to @mijostyn :  

You are pushing the superiority of Digital EQ...  So what model Digital EQ would you recommend?  I mean one that has knobs or sliders that I can enjoy adjusting easily and 'on-the-fly'.  The only one I can think of would be the Weiss mastering EQ, but it's $6500, and is Digital I/O only.