By way of example with a focus on bass, for some songs I like the amount of bass, then another song I feel like it needs more bass to hit harder, and then another song I feel like there is too much bass and it is boomy. Does that ever happen to you? I feel like I am getting the treble sorted out, but going back and forth on the bass. Can anyone listen to the first 20 second of the song Temptation by Diana Krall from the
If you are sitting on top of a modal peak or two, any track that has significant content at that frequency could boom you all the way to China town (Boom Shacka laka). Plot your room modes, position yourself out of such modes or use a pair of subs at the ’correct locations’ to ’cancel’ those modes out.
Some crappy recordings from the 80s and so on will be bass flaccid. If that’s the case, turn the tone controls knob clockwise. If the listener is a "pure" individual and refrains from usage of gear with EQ, tone controls, etc, well, such is his predicament (One lays in the bed he makes). The number of recordings he may really enjoy could drop from 5000 to 5.
Every recording you have ever heard in life has already gotten EQ’d all the way to high heaven before it got put on a CD or vinyl for you (it ain’t pure). There is nothing wrong with EQ’ing it to your taste if the mastering guy (who got way too high the night before) screwed it up while he EQ’d away.