Still the demons of GAS pursue me

Ifyou are into digital the issue is not getting the basics right for example 

you should have a modem router combo to start , the agood LPS power supply going to the router for these wall warts are $5 pieces of noise and digital from house to house brings noise  ,fiber optic sucks the life outof music 

you need a quality Ethernet switch Ansuz  and others sell them around $2500 and up, and good Ethernet cables ,the one at the endpoint most important .

for $400 Sablon makes a verygood one for the money .for example. ,even witha goood dac until your address these weaknesses then you-will not get that vinyl type  sound ,dac should be at least $4500 on up if you want true reference quality sound .I go to many audioget togethers and finally got the message ,no short cuts Allowed !!

In the 70s I had a Soundcrafstman preamp/eq. PE 2217 I recall the "edge wound" wring was a sales tool. The quality was good and I loved messing around with the curve. Back then I had no critical listening skills and my Bob Seger Live Bullet and Ted Nugent Double Live Gonzo records were the height of my audio palette. 

Recalling the colored memory of "the good days" I recently bought a DBX 2131 on eBay for poots and giggles. It was fun isolating the frequency and tweaking the mix. HOWEVER; they are noisy. There are 2 little Chinese transformers in them that hum like a hooker.

IMO an 7 to 10 level rig will suffer using and EQ. BUT they are really fun to tinker with and great for party music. It also lets you have a hands-on learning / recognition of specific frequencies. 

Good thing reality set in… a good problem to have… your current system is clearly far beyond the dreams of yesteryear. The trick is to flip that feeling of regret into joy. 

It reminds me of the Apogee EQ reviews.

I think it's important to figure out how we enjoy Audio.  Some do so by endlessly buying and tinkering.  Some by falling asleep to Chopin.  There's nothing wrong with all of it.

In general though, I think that adding an EQ should be done with purpose, if not measurements in mind. I don't know if this brand of EQ would degrade your experience or not, but I do think that EQ's are best implemented with at least some idea of a goal.  If you just want to have it to play with it, get it! :)  Or consider a miniDSP as a cheap playground.

I sold a plethora of EQs back in the day. Never understood why anyone would buy them. Band-Aids for sure. I never heard one actually make a system sound better, just different with added noise. I take that back, the Cello Palette was pretty cool, but expensive!

The ADC Sound Shaper was popular along with all the DBX crap of the day.