well i hate go go all OT on us here, but you found my weak spot.
anyone who says they want to "hear it as the artist intended" as an argument for not using EQ is makeing a statement that makes no sense.
its very simple
play a rolling sine wave through your headphones with no EQ. This file, if it is heard as the artist intended, will sound exactly the same volume from 20hz-20,000hz (minus the frequencies your headphones cant produce or your ears cant hear of course) but of course nearly no headphones will produce a rolling sine wave accurately.. they will have large spikes, or peaks, or sibilances or dips or valleys or roll offs or whatever you want to call them b/c they are imbalanced. when you use an eq to level all those imbalances, you are restoring the proper sound production, thus allowing the rolling sine wave to sound like it is supposed to, and thus allowing all music to sound a lot closer to how it was intended.. i say lot closer b/c there are of course many other factors involved in how a pair of cans sounds..
*steps off his soap box*
so boo to the so called "purists" booooooooooooooo!
of course i say all this in fun.. i could care less if people dont want to use eq or not.. if they want a crappy listening experience they are entitled to it...