To Equalize or Not to Equalize

Depending on your system and your source or sources (analog tt vs. streaming in the digital domain), perhaps consider using a miniDSP, fed by PEQ filters from REW.

This way you’re actually measuring the room interaction with your system, across your entire frequency range. Then if you so choose, you can generate filters that you load into the miniDSP.

Even if you don’t want to insert a Digital Signal Processor into your audio chain, I recommend that you download REW, which is free, and learn a bit about how it works and do some measurements. You need a PC/laptop and a calibrated microphone, like an affordable uMIK-1 ($80).

At at a minimum, it will give you a good, objective view of your frequency response in your listening position and then you can go from there. 

another happy Loki Max owner here, but to tell you the truth, since I put my LTA Aero dac into the system, I've not needed it. And I don't run my phono through it at all. I need to pull my system apart and get a new rack, rewire things, clean up some of the wiring. When I do that, I might try and put the EQ post pre-amp, then it will have everything running through it. As others said, the Loki Max has a single button  defeat, so you don't have to use it. I'm going to play with it...

@cathat What speakers are you running?  Edge diffraction and some tweeters can cause brightness and harshness.  Treating the baffles and areas around the tweeters can help if those are causes.  Other sources can be poor quality connections and crossover parts...tougher to fix, but possible if you're ambitious.  Cleaning up the signal path is worth pursuing IME vs trying to just EQ the problem up or down. 

Many DSP units offer both graphic EQs and parametric EQs, along with a bunch of other useful features.  I use DSP with a PEQ on my subs and woofers in a bi-amp setup to cut room nodes only in the lower regions, but it’s not even in the signal path for mid and high frequency at all.  

to add on, I have B&W speakers, most of my system is tube based, so I feel like I have a good balance where a set of bright speakers are tamed with warm tube glow. I did have a glare issue where it was more of a ring in my ears at higher volumes. Culprit...leather couch. I put a throw blanket over the couch behind my head and like magic, ring, glare - non existent. So, everyone above mentioning room treatment first are on the right track.

When I first got into this hobby back in the mid 1970's graphic equalizers were very popular. By the early 1980's as audio boutique stores selling astrobuck audio gear began to emerge, using a graphic equalizer became frowned upon; so much so that IME they were no longer offered in most audio companies' product lineups. 

It seems that over the past decade as the headphone hobby began to expand and more quality  audio gear was offered  to the headfi enthusiast, that the graphic equalizer began to experience a Renaissance. 

I think that Schiit Audio has had a lot to do with this Renaissance, given the company's first offering, the Loki Mini, followed by the Lokius and Loki Max. 

I use a Loki Mini in my headfi system and a Lokius in my two channel system, and find them to be very beneficial in tailoring the sound to my personal taste. 

I truly cannot envision any audio system that I use, not having a graphic equalizer.

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