You're right, I could re-EQ the original WAV files before encoding them. That is true.

However, I would not get the benefit of listening to them "live" on my car stereo as I make the edits to the EQ. I could only listen to them through my cheap PC sound card, using headphones that have a totally different response curve than my car speakers.

In the case of the Fixx album, it still might be enough to correct the harshness, though.