How do you use a sound equalizer?

Does a stereo frequency equalizer clear your audio?

• My setup:2 Powered Sub woofers/Two Speakers.Pretty simple i guess.But i have a stereo frequency equalizer just laying around,i was wondering if i can use it just to make the sound seem more crisp and clear.Also would it be a good idea to adjust the stereo frequency equalizer while having two powered subs connected?Or just leave the equalizer switches in the middle and only mess with the stereos EQ.Any tips and what i should do ? Any info will be great THANKS.

• Answer:

  Well most people do not know how to use equalizers correctly, and if your not careful you can damage your speakers very easily. The correct use of a equalizer is to reduce at certain frequency's that are causing coloration's in the sound, to allow you to hear the overall sound with greater clarity. But with that said, if you learn to use one right they can improve the sound by taking away certain frequency's that are over exaggerated which will mask allot of detail and allow a much cleaner more refined sound. By boosting at certain frequency's you are increasing the amount of output at those frequency's which can be overly demanding on your speakers and cause the voice coils in the drivers to overheat, and eventually stop working. So if you do use one be very careful. But yes used correctly they can help some systems dramatically, especially with poor speaker placement or room anomalies. As for hook up there are a couple of ways you can do this. The easiest way is to put it in line on the pre-out main ins on the back of the pre-amp and amplifier section, or you can put it on the tape monitor inputs and outputs. With that you have to select the tape monitor and the source to the tape outputs to hear that source equalized. The nice thing about that is you can hear with and without the equalizer so you can hear if you are improving the sound or not. Output to the input of the equalizer and the output of the equalizer to the input of the receiver. Kevin 40 years high end audio video specialist