I know this is heresy, but...

Behringer DEQ 2496. Hook up a mic and let it do all the room corrections for you, then add or subtract what you want.

FYI, I always thought the shorter the signal path the better, then I tried this DEQ and I don't know how I listened without one. Buy it from someplace where you can return it if you don't like it, but I would bet you'll keep it.

This heresy business is a case of the emperor having no clothes. Of course you may need tone adjustment. Recordings vary widely in how much *they* were equalized (either naturally or artificially). Good recordings tend to sound better on more systems, but even good recordings may not sound right on a given system without some adjustment of the tone. The only problem with equalizers is if they distort or pollute the noise, not the fact of EQ per se. Furthermore, even if you wish to pump up the bass or treble more than the recording engineer intended, that is not necessarily wrong. It's a matter of taste, though many surely overdo it. The fact that so many "audiophiles" evidently shy away from EQ shows how subjective and susceptible to fashion this audiophile business is.

Benjamin7...Actually, while an equalizer is undoubtedly the best way to rebalance the sound of a particular disc, it is not very convenient. Tone controls (remember those) are best for this purpose. They are also rejected by many audiophiles who are still living in the 1950s when tone control circuits were primitive and caused distortion. The best application of an equalizer is to fix problems that don't change from disc to disc. An exception to this rule would be a digital unit like the DEQ2496, which allows you to store and recall many different EQ curves at the touch of a button.

We all wish our multi thousand dollar equipment and speakers were tone coherant directly with all recordings, but in general this is nothing more than a fantasy, and honestly the only way I have found fairly consistent and liveable with almost no adjustment is a Very good analog source.

By no way does digital ever consistently come close I don't care how much the transport or player costs, maybe this is opinion, or my experiance souly. I don't think this is so much to do with the equipment however just the recording, and vinyl seems more even in general and fairly consistent. I am not selling the idea of vinyl here, But an Eq is not a bad thing especially with multiple sources that need to be tuned in, but can overdo some stuff definatley.

FOr those that have used the Berhinger ULTRACURVE PRO DEQ2496, please let me know, have you used it between preamp and amp or source and pre? It is balanced only I/O and for me this means b/t preamp and amp.

I am curious how transparent this device is, but i am also interested in the undeniable flexibilty that a real EQ brings to the audio table. I have scores of CDs that sound better over my monsoon system in my car, than thru the hi-fi. Please don't tell me my system is whacked then...;)
I know that an EQ is not a panacea for all discs but certainly some would benefit with a little spectral tilt...too warm and wooly too bright poor bass eq, etc.

I think my room acoustics are very good now with the help of 8th nerve and big fuzzy furniture, but some cds can't be helped even with good room acoustics and fairly transparent audio gear (Marantz 8001, ARC LS-15, ARC 100.2, Dynaudio COntour 1.8's). I think the benefit of even simple tone controls would be totally sweet, in the ARC-LS 15 itself!!