To EQ Or Not To EQ, Or Is EQ Taboo? Should You Use An Equalizer Or Tone Control?

This is a surprisingly complex question that Andrew Welker, Chief Product Officer, answers in this video. Considerations are all about audio quality, but the answer is not just a straight up yes or no to using an equalizer or tone controls.

First and foremost, additional processing in the audio signal path is not a good thing. You may think that means the EQ is taboo, but as always, there are exceptions to the rule. Spoiler alert: it's all about whether your music is well-recorded.

Big shout out to the 78 collectors who jump through all kinds of hoops to listen to their 78 RPM records.

Looking forward to seeing what you have to say about why you do or do not use EQ in your system. Like all things audio, it's all about what makes your sound sing.

Fall in love with your music🎵 all over again❤️
Get speakers you’ll listen to at any volume for hours on end.🎚

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#ToneControls #Equalizer #HomeAudio

[MGDRIVING]

I have just sold my "Audiophile Modern Equipment" and went back to vintage audio. One of the main reasons was tone control, especially at different volumes. Since COVID, my wife works at home, so I cannot listen to music at louder volumes like I did before. I found with my Usher speakers that they really needed power to come alive. At low volumes, they just did not sound full and proper powered by the Rega Aethos. When connected to my Harmon Kardon 930, I was able to add a Contour (loudness) and boost the tones so that the sound is full at very low listen volumes. Then there is the challenge of my room which includes a Livingroom, dining room, large hallway, entrance to kitchen and stairway to the basement. The room itself acts like an equalizer, but outside of my control. I find that I quite enjoy having the ability to change that using my HK 930 combined with an EQ8 to compensate for my room and also the listening volume level. I also adjust for older recordings, tapes and cassettes to enhance my listening pleasure. I now believe that if you have a dedicated listening area designed for sound, and only listen to amazing recordings, then the Class A/B approach without tone adjustments would be desirable. I guess it comes down to what you enjoy and I am finding now that I am enjoying the music, all of it, without regard to the recording quality since I can easily adjust the sound to make it more enjoyable to my ears in my listening environment. Now its all about the music :)

[FaceTheStreets]

I'm a music producer and mix engineer so I have eq's in my racks. I actually learned how to mix using graphic eq's on my radios as a kid. But on my mains I run them without eq tho I'm now considering adding s stereo parametric eq before my monitor signal just to see if I can fine tune them. I will add that most people have no clue how to use EQ and make things sound horrible. I've lost count of how many friends cars I've goten into and they litterally turned all the bass, mids, and highs all the way up thinking that it would "enhance" the sound. It just makes everything break levels and sound bad. So it's probably a good thing that most systems have the eq section removed. It's sort of dummy proof now lol

[agungbawa]

I almost every day listen to rock or pop music using a 10 inch Bluetooth speaker and a tweeter, when I listen to music without eq I feel like too much midle sound, Then I downloaded 5ch equalizer on my smartphone and raised the bass a little, lowered the mids little bit and slightly raised the treble
And I compare the sound before and after, I like the sound of my eq setting 😊

[mrboat]

The current crop of audiophiles are more often than not, posing purity for internet points. They are always upgrading, even after they swore the last, latest and greatest thing they bought and spent too much on, was end game. All one has to do is look at what they listen to. Mostly eccentric/eclectic stuff that nobody else listens to, some of which, is downright weird. Rock and pop heads are a whole other realm of audiophile, most of who, do not mind 'slumming it.'

The other purity hounds have no listening friends, or even immediate family that want to listen with them. Back in the '80s, these types of audiophiles were pretty lonely, while everyone else could be found at my house on any given day, bringing the newest popular releases for sessions that could last hours, or even days on a furniture store grade rack system with EQ. The more audio active of us all knew how to work the EQ with the results often being unanimously agreed upon as to what the album needed. It was almost never the smiley config though.

I have both new and old systems. I definitely like the old for mainstream music. The new works for better recorded material but can be a bit too revealing for iffy recordings.

Nobody in my circle listens to music nearly as much as I do and are more about creating an audio poster child for whatever high-end audio magazine cover they are reading these days. Sparsely furnished rooms, void of all but some postage stamp sized rug, preamp and amps on the floor, and a myriad of (albeit limited in bandwidth) treatments on walls and ceiling, perhaps, with some somewhat centrally located chair/seating. To me it sounds dreadful and is just not cozy/inviting and yet these tend to be the people who eschew tone controls?

[hansoosterwal]

Sorry for the late reaction. I am a guitarteacher and have two systems in my living room. The first is a normal stereo system. The second is a mixer based system with two Focal studio monitors. In this system I can integrate myself and/or my pupils on electric guitars/basses. Of course my mixer has tone controls. At times I enjoy listening music on this system. Then it's great to have tone controls, for instance with a bright recording. Wonderful to be able to mittigate the top end with about three DB. I'm a lover of tone controls. Thank you for your thoughts, Andrew, I learn a lot, and that's wonderful!

[razhua]

I really enjoy having an equalizer with memories as recordings have different presentations and I feel like some music that I would not listen otherwise it became enjoyable after some equalization. and an EQ with preset memories is an invaluable tool in my opinion.

[tobymummert]

I used to have a great sounding pair of
Paradigm Monitor 9 MKIII speakers I purchased in 1994 and they were super fantastic to the point where I did not need a tone control on practically every recording recording, be it played on vinyl or compact disc or even cassette tape and also the genre of music did not matter. These speakers were just fantastic and so accurate and did such a great job reproducing the sound I was hearing. There's a thing called "forgiveness" when it comes to speakers and that just simply means that the sound is accurate but it is more forgiving if it's harsh or a little bass shy or overly mid-range-y. Yes there were those albums that were recorded poorly but they where extremely tolerable and totally enjoyable to play through the speakers with no tone control adjustments whatsoever. Then one day I foolishly gave them to my brother-in-law when I had a divorce and purchased a pair of Bowers and Wilkins or B&W speakers. The speakers were CM10 S2 speakers and they looked amazing and I purchased them while not realizing that in the showroom they had a subwoofer plugged into the system. Now here's where the rubber really hits the road. Bowers & Wilkins speakers do not forgive. Not at all. They were amazingly impressive looking and sounded pretty damn good in the showroom. Once again remember they had a subwoofer hooked up. I was so impressed I bought a pair and got them home and hooked them up and they sounded horrible as so many other B&W speakers do. The worst part about B&W speakers is that a completely criticized whatever source you are putting through them. Terribly be shy on practically everything you play regardless of what genre you're listening to. In my opinion you need to have more money than you should need to have to power these speakers somewhat properly but at the same time that doesn't take away the fact that they are away to "non-forgiving". I found myself pulling out good old recordings that were recorded super well in the 1970s and playing them on vinyl and they sound horrible because they're extremely shy and they just don't get the job done regardless of how sharp looking they are. In my opinion I wasted $4, 000 for the pair and foolishly got rid of my Paradigms and will never get those fantastic speakers back.
I do have, however, Sansui equalizer, not in use at this time that in its day, probably around the mid-1980s it was one of the best equalizers you could buy and if you go on eBay you will find them selling for around $500 in good shape. Every time I go into my Listening Room and I see these beautiful and really cool looking Bowers and Wilkins or B&W, whichever you prefer, really the same thing, and I'm foolishly expecting to pull out a good old album and have an audio orgasm
BUT that never happens. It's always super upper mid-range in my face and somewhat smooth highs and extremely very shy bass response on every Source I play and it's gotten to the point where I'm about ready to break out the EQ and see if there's anything I can do to get the bottom end of these speakers to perk up a bit. These speakers will not become boomy if I add more low frequencies. They will probably more than most likely stay very tight but just have a fuller low end Improvement. If you love your good old fantastic record collection or CD collection or whatever you have and you have thin sound with nothing but mid-range and shovel and shy bass regardless of what speaker you have then you should possibly consider a good 12-20 band EQ. Problem is trying to find one these days that are in excellent shape for under $500. As an Audiophile myself, I am seriously suffering with these c
B&W speakers and I think it would be a super fantastic idea if they could create a very high quality equalizer for today's high-end music enthusiast.
My Philosophy has always been if your two channel speaker system can't get the job done, you don't need a subwoofer, subwoofers are for home theater strictly and if you don't have that good old sound that plays just about every source accurately and in the most satisfying way then you have the wrong speakers or you need to get an equalizer. They're really not bad but it will definitely depend on what audio interconnects you use.

[errolallen]

I’ve had an EQ since the 80s and just got another one to add to my hi end system and the audiophile community can do whatever they want I will😂😂😂😂😂

[miker]

I've used an equalizer in the past, but I found that I was spending way to much time trying to "tweak" the sound from recording to recording, so I took it out of my system. It got to the point that I no longer was enjoying the music trying to get it just right. Even on an album, each individual song sometimes had to be EQ'd differently to make it sound better to my ears. I agree that the sound engineers and the recording studio play a huge part in the way the final product sounds, but there are so many other different variables, including equipment, type of listening area, etc.

[elvispresley]

I look at an eq like I do my tool box. It doesn't hurt to have it there (unhooked) if I need it. What I don't do is purchase ANYTHING that is remastered. I want what the artist approved regardless, then if I want to "remaster" it myself, I just eq it, which is rare. I could care less what others think. While they are running their mouth arguing, I'm sitting in my chair with an ice-cold glass of tea and relaxing. Great video sir, well balanced and humble. I'd salute you, but I'm busy eq'ing :))

[talkingwithcars]

I believe that EQ on a home theater system should be something that is discussed much more often and manufacturers should allow for much better sound control and ability to alter frequency settings. Everyone's listening characteristics are different and some tweaks need to be made in order to give that individual the best possible sound form your system. My Pioneer Elite SC receiver does give me the ability to play with the EQ (although minimal) it does help me create a better sound output (for me). My ears are not young anymore and I think the higher and lower ranges need a little boost :) Do you know of any really good EQ training videos for someone like myself and my system?

[DxModel]

The big taboo is that you don’t use equalizers because you want to be as original as you can to the record producers intended it to be … but how do you know if the producers were any good? or if they just rushed the recording through skimping on engineers because they are already overbudget and the recording is like crap?! I’ve heard modern recordings where there were background noise or faded instrumentals or overbearing vocals… Modern recordings aren’t what they used to be. So many digital compressions and 3rd party editing now. I have a $30K system and when i slapped in a JVC vintage $80 equalizer it was just amazing… everything came alive. Now it makes me wonder if that $30K system was worth it when it took a $80 EQ to make it wake up hahha.

[dickjohnson]

I enjoy listening to most recorded media (TT/CD/HIRes streaming etc).
I sometimes tweek the tone control to take the edge off high frequencies on poorly recorded pieces regardless of medium which helps reduce listening fatigue and to reduce nodes and reflections (the music is always on at our place).
The only issue with tone is that it is a relatively crude tool).
The one opportunity that I wish was available on modern equipment is correction for the perceived frequency imbalances at low levels. There certainly should be some way to apply adjustments suggested by the Fletcher-Munson Equal Loudness Contour that is more effective than the “Loudness” switches we had years ago without having to constantly adjust an equalizer…

[jimwoody]

I tried an older Yamaha GE-30 inline with a quality CD player and the diff was astounding. I certainly like the sound better than previously without it. I like being able to add extra high frequency content where I was maxed out and could "on occasion" hear that crystalline tinkle sound with clarity. Now, I can use that Super Tweet like never before. I add a touch more low frequency and get very nice bottom the EVM12L is capable of.
I say big YES on graphic eq addition. I like it and that's what I'm using.

[baronofgreymatter]

Uhhh it's your equipment ...your house ..your music...do what you want who the hell can say otherwise

[dmunz]

Using EQ's for 35 years and don't plan to change, no smiley face presets here. I was in school bands from 4 - 12 grades, I know how live instruments sound and I adjust the EQ bands accordingly, to mimic the sound of live instruments. When using an EQ, it's about the sound of the individual instruments as opposed to the sound of the music/song.

[BillGrady]

My speakers are more forgiving than my headphones. When I listen to my music collection over speakers, no tone controls at all. I can get it to sound right with just speaker placement and tuning my subwoofer crossover and levels. Headphones, however, will clearly show the differences between good and thin/dead recordings. Most of the time it's just right. But if a recording needs a low end boost, a couple db on the EQ (I have a Technics EQ that I bought in the 90's) and the recording is perfect. For a recording that sounds flat, a couple db at 6.3 Khz fixes it. EQ seems to be a better, and more enjoyable solution for my music collection.

[cruzingrsx]

I have the Marantz PM8006 which has tone control’s but I keep them flat unless it’s something that’s very poorly recorded

[epg]

I have a hifi system and currently use a Schiit Lokius EQ after my phono preamp and really enjoy it. I use it very slightly and it just gives me that little extra I love. That being said, I've always loved tinkering. Also it could be system/speaker dependent as well...lots of factors. Boosting the 2k range very slightly helps give me some more boost to vocals to help them cut through a little more which is very nice. Currently eyeing their Loki Max and thinking of trying to run both my phono preamp as well as dac into that to see if I like it. I use all tube gear otherwise (preamp, phono preamp and NOS R2R tube dac) so I kind of tone control with tube rolling (use NOS tubes, etc). Anyways, fun to tinker and I'm not ashamed of not being a "purist" if I get a thrill out of a touch of EQ:)

[theHeartlessNooB]

I recently broke out of the NO EQ dogma. Some records absolutely need EQ and no amount of room correction will fix them.