To Equalize or Not to Equalize

Thanks for all the well thought out responses.  I appreciate that.  I have learned a few things to move forward;

1.  My room isn't going to change much any time soon.

2.  I need to get a better grip on just what is happening, how are certain frequencies bouncing around and what about the profile that I hear am i finding unpleasant.

3.  If I add an EQ, it will likely be a Schiit product.

4.  There is a wide range of perspective about sound/musicand it's reproduction in our homes.  I fall into the "if it sounds good - listen" camp.  I know that I will break a few laws going forward.

So with that in mind - I spent the weekend rearranging my room a bit.  I can't change the bones of the space or really add much treatment so I did an unconventional thing and moved my gear so it is now in a corner at 45 degrees rather than at one end of the room.  This allowed my to space my (floorstanding) speakers farther apart and a bit more into the room.  Also gave me I bit more flexibility with my listening chair.  I now form a better triangle and aim the speakers  about a yard behind my head.

This has really helped several things.  I don't notice many recordings to sound harsh as much, the soundstage is better, and I can recline my chair!

Having more room across has allowed my to put my old 2 channel speakers into my 5.2 video set-up as fronts.

Next step is to try and get a better picture of the sound profile and decide on what EQ may be needed.

I'll check back in and let you know when I wrap up...thanks for helping out.

This is probably not a helpful answer but my old ears have a natural high frequency roll off. You could just burn in your ears so to speak and then You high frequencies will be tamed. I used to EQ but now I don’t.  I enjoy using a EQ when I had one installed so I say why not. As to which one to get I have no advice as I haven’t tried any in a long time.

The scary thing is that I have been burning in my ears for over 50 years, since I was a teen.  A good part of that span was using headphones the majority of the time.  So I'm sure, like you, my ears roll off the highs and still I find them a little harsh sometimes when I crank the volume knob a bit. 

I have a vintage Kenwood P/GEQ.  I use it exclusively for needle drops, where a slight boost in the bottom end compensates for bass rolloff in the cartridge, or bass-shy recordings.  A few dBs max.  Even though my rig is not a super hi end one, I rarely feel like I need EQ to listen.  If I do, my pre has bass and treble controls, and Roon has a sophisticated digital EQ program.  When done in the digital domain, EQ does not introduce phase shift.

FWIW EQ/DSP is an increasingly common feature in a variety of streaming applications.