Equalizer in a Hi Fi system

@jtcf , happy to be of help. Word of caution on Charter Oak. I have a lot to say about older generation CO vs newer ones made in CA. The Deming era ones are better sounding. I’ve had both in my rig. I returned a new CA made Charter Oak to get an older gen one used from Austria on Reverb. There is still one used one with the right age serial number on Reverb but its volume pots are now detented/modded. Deming himself told me he’s not sure that one’s a good one. Otherwise you’re buying new and not the same. I wish Mike still made them but he doesn’t. It’s worth your while to go back and read earlier in this thread everything that @mirolab and myself said about this piece. If I were buying right now, I’d trust Mirolab’s judgement and buy the Vintage Audio Skyline piece. 

@tlcocks 

Studio gear is certainly not overbuilt as some home HiFi is. It is certainly more reasonably priced. I use commercial sound reinforcement amps to drive my subwoofers and I use a studio digital switcher with DAC and ADC capability. There is absolutely nothing special about studio gear and in many instances it is inferior to home equipment. This is particularly true of loudspeakers (monitors). The very best speakers are not studio monitors. That is not to say there are not some very good ones like the old LS3 5A. Put a subwoofer under the LS and cross at 100 hz and you will swear you are listening to Wilsons. I also would be willing to bet most studios are using digital equipment at this point. The analog stuff is being or has been phased out except in specialty studios dedicated to analog of which there are a few, not including MoFi😏

@mahgister 

I assure you I have normal (nothing special) ears. I am a very careful, organized listener and certainly I do not use my nose to do that. As I said above, I have my own house curve. I wonder how I developed it. Must have done it with the third toe on the left.  I also do not wax poetic about analog equipment. I am not a romantic. 

tl and I agree that having EQ capability is an important asset. We go about it differently. That is why Howard Johnson's made 28 flavors.

We are so different that i am sure we will learn from one another in person...😊

Then dont take my passionnate love for discussion too much personal...😁

Difference in thinking are a + if they are born from a common ground ( music ) toward a common goal (music )😉

By the way my first loves are : mathematics, poetry, linguistics and music... I just figure out lately how acoustics include them all in a unique way ...

@mahgister

I assure you I have normal (nothing special) ears. I am a very careful, organized listener and certainly I do not use my nose to do that. As I said above, I have my own house curve. I wonder how I developed it. Must have done it with the third toe on the left. I also do not wax poetic about analog equipment. I am not a romantic.

tl and I agree that having EQ capability is an important asset. We go about it differently. That is why Howard Johnson’s made 28 flavors.

@mijostyn appreciate your honesty in that you really haven’t tried what I’m talking about. Regarding playing around with various midrange frequencies I , again, prefer to adjust TONE, meaning bass and treble via the principles laid out in the Stereophile article about Levinson and his thoughts on playback EQ as well as the cello palette. I believe once you are with a good room and with high end gear and cabling that you don’t mess with the mids. So I don’t. I prefer to leave THAT to the sound engineers in production, as our gear far more likely to render flat (what artist intends us to hear is heard) in mids. Rolled off issues in treble though, I love to correct with my high end analog EQ. By the way, if one ever DID want to EQ in the mids or presence regions, good studio analog gear does it GREAT. the sound engineers who reviewed my CO online RAVED about how beautiful the 3 K dial sounds. In fact they raved that you can’t make the music sound bad with any dial adjustments on CO. I actually do often dial in a touch of mids on the 1-2 k some. 
listen…@mijostyn…I respect you and your experience and your approach. I bet you’re great at dialing it in digitally. We all have different sound preferences too. Please respect my approach and thoughts. I am a huge advocate of high end treble augmentation when needed (record dependent), and quite honestly I consider myself to have struck gold here with certain analog pieces. And Miro has commented on said analog air band and its beauty as well. Just please don’t make assumptions about gear you’re not that familiar with. I’m careful not do that with you.  Indeed, because I love this hobby so much, I’ll likely get my hands on a DEQX and really learn how it sounds and what it’s good and not so good at so I can be more experienced.

“I also would be willing to bet most studios are using digital equipment at this point. The analog stuff is being or has been phased out except in specialty studios dedicated to analog of which there are a few, not including MoFi😏”

@mijostyn , you are frankly in flat out denial over the importance of analog EQ in mastering studios. Please do yourself a favor and research that online. You will see what I mean.