phthora
Headphoneus Supremus
Even tho no one can tell the difference between lossless audio codecs and high bit rate lossy mp3 compression.
What? Oh come on. That's easy! Just compare the file sizes or check the file extension. Works 100% of the time.
I have a feeling we have two distinct and opposite camps in here. I could bet that if Head-Fi had a poll of what's more important between having "bit perfect" or DSP capability, the vast majority would choose "bit perfect". Even tho no one can tell the difference between lossless audio codecs and high bit rate lossy mp3 compression.
If one cares only about avoiding OS sound APIs (aka Windows sound / DirectSound), there are many DSP, and even free PEQ, that do work under ASIO, WASAPI, KernelStreaming and other "bit perfect" sound APIs (also for Linux, OS X). For example, I have MathAudio components for foobar2000.
To your point though, I think you are generally correct. Though there are many such camps on Head-Fi, most them a spectrum rather than a binary. Personally, I default to bit perfect, but definitely see the point of DSP in many cases. My ultimate reason for not EQ'ing the 2C has nothing to do with that however: On the spectrum ranging from headphone monogamy to headphone polyamory, I definitely lean towards the latter. Correct sound then is not something I strive for in every headphone, or even very many. I like to have variety, and it's enough for me that the 2C sounds different from my other headphones and sounds good. I won't try to argue that the upper mids dip doesn't exist, that it doesn't bother me sometimes, that it's tonally correct, or that it shouldn't be EQ'd, but I will argue that it gives these headphones character and that I find that character very appealing. If it bothers me too much for particular music, I'll switch to another headphone since I have that option. Not saying that's the right way, but I enjoy having a headphone be itself, warts and all, unless there is something really off about it to my ears. With IEMs, I have fewer options to choose from, so I end up EQ'ing most of those, even several of my favorites.
Anyway, thanks for the MathAudio rec! I'll be using that for sure for the one or two headphones that I do EQ.