To Equalize or Not to Equalize

Why not? You paid for the gear and music and are free to listen to it any way you want. Who cares? This is why EQ exist and so it room correction or dialog enhancement in Dolby and DTS. Everyone's ear is different. Room response may be flat but are your ears? No one can measure full transmission response from media to the brain.

@douglas_schroeder - even 10K+ system does not take into account room response or ear transmission of a particular individual. Even room measurement and correction only compensate for part of the audio chain. It does not compensate for individual ear characteristics.

Could not live without my Wavelet II with built in EQ and DSP. Could not imagine listing to all the recordings flat at the mixing engineers desired levels. Can’t stand the piety of Audiophile not willing to admit you need EQ for all high end audio equipment. Look at the Cello Pallet preamp w EQ. 

@rbrannen "Can’t stand the piety of Audiophile not willing to admit you need EQ for all high end audio equipment." 

+1

This is one of the irrationalisms of audiophilia. Drs. Toole and Olive provided a science-backed guide as to what our brains prefer, regardless if the source is high end, low end, or somewhere in between.

And when it comes to discussing tools for the job, just as with any other audio component be it analog or digital, they are (unfortunately) not all created equal. 

Man, I’m 70, have tinnitus in my left ear and upper frequency loss in both. For me to worry about hifi purity is like pissing into the wind. EQ gets me the sound I like, THD and N are imperceptible. More important,  I got no room for subs, so what about those times I’m listening to Chemical Brothers or Shpongle and want to crank up the bass and feel it in my chest? Crank up the EQ, (or lower the rest if you prefer).