Henno: In a car, however, I find [equalizers] unavoidable

Well, yes and no.

I have what might be considered a distributed equalizer -- no equalizer per se, but enough individual controls to do a pretty good simulation of an equalizer. That is, my bass is on its own amplifier -- so I can adjust bass response separately from the rest of the system. My mid-range speakers each have a separate L-pad (resistor pot) on them so I can adjust both the amount and location of mid-bass. My treble speakers can be adjusted by the gain on the head unit. And then there are the coarse bass/treble and loudness settings on the head unit itself. So, while I have no equalizer in the car, I can in actuality do quite a lot of equalizing.

John: The fact that a perfectly flat response sounds terrible means that recording studios aren't using speakers with flat responses.

Well, maybe... I was referring specifically to a pink noise track in competition, in which the object of the game is to divide the 20Hz -- 20KHz spectrum up into 1/3 octave intervals, giving 32 separate bands, and then make each one play at exactly the same decibel level as all the others. That gives a straight (flat) line across the spectrum analyzer, and it is pretty impressive when a competitor has the kind of control of his system that allows him to tune like that. But listen to music with that equalization, and it sounds terrible--not enough bass response, not enough treble response, it seems like it's all mid-range.

I kind of think we're not talking about the same things here when I refer to "flat" on a pink-noise competition, and you refer to flat equalization of music.

tanstaafl.



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