[officetally]

Just wondering if any of you change those settings, if you do, let me know. I can't seem to find a perfect equalizer match for my Beethoven, Mozart, Vivaldi, etc. Much appreciated.

 

[Henry Flower]

Equalizers are to compensate for biases in your equipment.  Nothing to do with the style of music.

 

[calaf]

flat!

 

[XaNE]

Depends completely on equipment 

 

[bigshot]

For good headphones, no or very little EQ. For speakers, it's the same as with all music- equalization to compensate for the aural characteristics of your room and speakers.

 

[mitchflorida]

I try to use very little in terms of EQ, but some particular recordings seem to need a little bit of "help" and I use the "loudness" setting for those.  It isn't a matter of set it and forget it.
 
I also set my subwoofer settings to medium, as opposed to 0.   I am using Sennheiser HD 598 headphones.

 

[bigshot]

"Medium" doesn't really mean much with speakers, because the room has such a great effect. With a balanced response, I almost never need to adjust the tone controls for jazz and classical. Rock music is so poorly engineered, it's all over the map.

 

[234537]

The ideal would be to not to equalize.
 
I always exclude the "tone" controls from my amps, because they make many music details lost.

 

[bigshot]

That isn't true. That's equipment manufacturer's prevarication.
 
A good equalizer does NOT degrade the sound, it improves it. You gain much more detail from eliminating masking through a balanced response than theoretical (and inaudible) details lost in a simple tone pot.

 

[mitchflorida]

I am using the Classical Music settings on my equalizer for my classical music.  It seems to add more "presence".  

 

[234537]

Quote:

That isn't true. That's equipment manufacturer's prevarication.
 
A good equalizer does NOT degrade the sound, it improves it. You gain much more detail from eliminating masking through a balanced response than theoretical (and inaudible) details lost in a simple tone pot.

Unless you mean digital equalizers, the common analogic ones degrade the sound. It is much better to play in "direct" mode if your amplifier has this feature.
 
Both a friend of mine and I owned AMC CVT3030 amplifiers and had no doubt that excluding the equalizer made an improvement.

 

[bigshot]

Most people use digital equalizers nowadays, but there are good analogue ones too. I have a 32 band Rane analogue graphic EQ that is as clean as a whistle.It only cost about $500. DBX makes some good ones too. Back in the 70s, there were cheap noisy and buzzy equalizers that were not much more than toys. Today, it's different.
 
I can switch from EQ to direct mode my system, and there is absolutely no doubt that the sound is vastly improved by proper equalization. It's not even close.

 

[The.Yield]

It's always been my understanding that properly recorded and mastered music is meant to be enjoyed at reference settings (aka flat). It should not matter what music you're listening to so long as it was properly mastered.  

 

[rhythm is life]

Quote:

It's always been my understanding that properly recorded and mastered music is meant to be enjoyed at reference settings (aka flat). It should not matter what music you're listening to so long as it was properly mastered.  

 


+1
 
Assuming your headphones/speakers have a flat response, no EQ is the best EQ for classical music. The recording quality of most classical music, as well as other well-recorded music, will reward a flat frequency response.

 

[charliex]

Best settings are what suits you the best.  Got it?