EQ degrades your sound quality.
Now that is one hell of a blanket statement. And it’s hard to explain without saying things that don’t actually exist but just sit with me.
Imagien you have a song of quality level 100. And you have ears that can hear 80. If your EQ iq only gonna degrade it 10 or 20… You won’t hear a difference.
So when DO you hear a difference?
- Heavier EQ-ing. The more you EQ (the higher or lower you pull the slider at any given frequency) the more your quality will degrade. (in my stupid example, imagine lowering the quality not by 20 but by 50)
- Worse source quality. I’m talking about either the digital source (the file/stream) when you EQ in software or the input signal when you EQ. (imagine in my stupid example you only start at level 80)
- better hearing. We all got different ears and brains. Mine are fucked. I can listen to a 320kbps mp3 and a top of the line lossless 8GB song and not hear a damn difference. but some of us do hear better. (Again. In my stupid ‘levels’ example. imagine if you can hear a 95)
So when you EQ, pick a good source and listen. Do you hear the quality suffer? No? Great! Sure it DID suffer but if you can’t hear it who gives a f*ck! Yes? try a lighter EQ